Why I Am A Liberal by Louis Stringer (SK)

June 24, 2023

Former MP Ralph Goodale was the man who probably had the most influence on my becoming more active in the Liberal Party. Ralph was first elected as the MP for the Assiniboia Federal Riding in 1974. This was the Constituency where my home town, Gravelbourg, was located in Saskatchewan.

He became the Parliamentary Secretary to Otto Lang, who was the Minister then in charge of the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB). This was at a time when the farm economy in Western Canada was changing in a big way.

I remember travelling long distances to Riding Association Meetings that centered on burning issues such as Prairie Grain Branchline abandonment because the CPR and CN were starting to tear up some of their tracks in the West which would eventually spell the demise of the Canadian Wheat Board.

When Ralph lost his seat federally in 1979, he switched into provincial politics, becoming the Leader of the Saskatchewan Liberal Party in 1982. After several tries he was elected in the Assiniboia-Gravelbourg Constituency in 1986 as the sole Liberal in the province. By then I had worked for Ralph in his numerous campaigns provincially.

Ralph bounced back onto the federal scene in politics in 1993 when he was re-elected as a Liberal MP in the Regina-Wascana Federal Constituency. And the rest is history.

What impressed me about Ralph is that he took a personal interest in his constituents whether they voted for him or not. He was on everybody’s social agenda in Assiniboia-Gravelbourg Constituency – for graduations, weddings, funerals, and all sorts of other events which he found time to attend.

Politicians like Ralph Goodale is “Why I Am A Liberal”.

Louis Stringer, SLC Section Chair, Saskatchewan