Chips, booze and lumber: A whirlwind trip with Kris Austin

Trailing Kris Austin on a day of campaigning is much like travelling without adestination.

There aremany, many stops in unexpected places. Not a whole lot is planned. And there is lots of buying of things you didn'tknow you needed.

Austin's tour of the Upper St. John River Valley on Thursday was mostly dictated by the whimsof the localcandidateshemet with along the way.

"From head office in Fredericton we don't dictate where they go and we don't do a whole lot of, you know, marketing apparatus around things," said Austin.

A lumber mill, apotatochipplant, a cabinetfactory,and a "moonshine"distillery were a few of stops as the People'sAlliance "campaign bus," a Dodge Caravan, wrapped in purple campaign decalsdeclaring"Be theChange!"bouncedfrom place to place.

Arranging to meet Austin along his route proved a bit of challenge, like hitting a moving target. Hiscommunications manager suggested the most direct method: "text him."

Journalists often have to navigate layers ofcommunicationsofficers, emails and callsbeforeaccessing other party leaders.Just texting isrefreshinglysimple.

And that mantra of"common sense"isone that isn'tloston those who pledge theirallegianceto the former church minister from Minto.

That text leads to a call, which leads to the Covered BridgePotatoChip Company in Waterville.Once there, it's not hard to pinpoint who's with the People's Alliance of New Brunswick. One purple shirt greets another before Austin and Stewart Manuel, thecandidatefor the riding of Carleton, take the potatochip tour.

As potatoes are sorted, diced and cooked in oil in the background, the two men speak at length withcompany president Ryan Albright aboutchallengesfacing small businesses, lowering taxes, and the quality of life in the Maritimes, all while chowing down on a bag of chips.

Austin makes his arguments for a change in government, shakes hands and buys a few more bags"for the road."

He crosses the street to Moonshine Creek, adistilleryof grain spirits.(Theterm "moonshine" isn'tlegallyrecognized in Canada, so the term moonshine is used with a wink.)

Here Austin repeats the process, touring theplant,then voicing his displeasure with bureaucracy toownerJeremiah Clark.Hecriticizes the various taxes faced bylocal brewers and distillers, vows to move the sale of alcohol to private companies and convenience stores, reducing the Crown corporation to a regulatory body, and promises a flat tax.

Austinshakes hands,buysajar of apple crumble-flavoured definitely-not-moonshine moonshine wink-wink and heads to his next stop, wherever that might be.

He promises he's not a heavy drinker.

A promise of different

For the last eight years, Austin has promised he can do better than either the Liberals or the PCs, two sides of the same coin as far as he's concerned. And that promise is what has brought some people into politics, although many shrug off the label of "politician."

"I was sitting around complaining about the government so I decided to jump in," said Manuel, who alsobought jar of not-moonshine.

Manuel is one of 30 candidatesrunning for the People's Allianceand one of many who have no law-making or political experience. After working with CN Rail for 35 years, Manueldescribes himself as a guy who, when it comes down to it, just "wants his road fixed."

"The roads are terrible," Manuel said. "People, they buy a new vehicle and they beat the front end off on potholes. And they're just sick of it, really.

"They're just bad everywhere and they hate paying taxes and having nothing to show for it."

But like most of those new to the purple party, Manuel points to Austin himself for recruiting him.

"I looked at the Green Party and the People's Alliance, and I picked the People's Alliance,"said Manuel.

"People's Alliance to me was the better party. Just the way Kris would talk to you. And his interviews. It's just a common-sense party, basically."

Austin and Manuel wish each other luck and part ways. Off to meet thecandidatefarther north, Austindisappearsjust long enough to sneak some Burger King, before he's shaking hands with the next purple shirt in front ofthe Victoria Glen Manor inPerth-Andover.

Perth-Andover

Terry Sisson, a retired school teacher and former Hockey NB board member heads into the manor, where it seems every second person knows his name.

Thequestion "How are you doing, Terry?" is often met with the lightning response of "Terrible! How are you?" with a chuckle and a friendly smile. He's a character and heknowsit. Butsodoes the community, and the well-known 75-year old is well-liked.

He's quick to poke fun of himself, but when questioned about the issues he's campaigning on, he becomes sombre.

"We're not retaining our youth here,"saidSisson.

Over the years, hesaid, he's watched hockey clubs shrink to the point where it'sdifficultto keep a team going.The community has been aging, and families with children are few and far between.

"I'm probably a little over the average age, but not by much."

He gotsad saying that onlytwo homes have sold over the last five years.

"I drive up through here and I can see more empty houses and signs with "For Sale" on them and I know that the people aren't going to sell them. Nobodyis buying around here. Nobody iscomingback here."

But Austingives him hope for a change in the way things have been run in the province. Like many in the party, he sees no tangible differences in a community when New Brunswick is run bythe PCs or the Liberals. In Austin, he seessomething different.

"I like Kris. He's honest.Straightforward. No beating around the bush. What he says you can take to the bank."

Sissonseesthe major issues as jobs andpopulationdecline, while his fellowcandidatejust down the river points toinfrastructureand services being the number one issue. They echo a similar sentiment on at least two things: their leader andlanguage.

Rally time

Five o'clock rolls around and by this time, Austin has visited close to a dozen businesses and shopsthroughoutthe day.

This culminates inNackawic, where about 50 supporters all wearing purplegather under the "World's Biggest Axe" for abarbecueand a meet-and-greet rally.Potatoesare once again sliced and cooked in oil, andanacousticguitar solo act plays in the background.

Here, once again, the localcandidatedescribes his decision to run as the result of Austin'sperceivedsincerity.

"He sold me," saidGary Lemmon, a retired carpenter running forCarlton-York."His message was so clear and so honest. And he came across so honest. And I listened to his plan, his policies. And I thought "this was somebody that I could follow," you know, 'I like what you're telling me.'

'He's talking about change, he's talking about a voice for the people and that was a new thing," said Lemmon.

And Lemmon, like the others who havedonnedthe purple shirt, thinks that if New Brunswick were in better shape it could afford duality,the offering ofseparateservices in French and in English. But not in this economy.

Language barriers

The divisive issue of languagebrings a lot of thesecandidatestogether. Each insists there is no deep-seated agenda against the francophone community.

Rather, it'sthe costs that come with being Canada's onlybilingualprovince. And in a province strapped for cash the idea of "paying double"doesn'tjive with the"common sense" mantra.

Forgetting for a minute the constitutional protection of both official languages, it's the commonly held belief that there's a mountainof money to be saved byabolishingduality.

The example touted most often is the image of twohalf-full school buses making the same early-morning rounds, picking up English and Frenchchildren separately. The "double costs" don't make "common sense," when your targeted base is anglophones in the southern half of the province.

And it's rallying points like this one that have been growing the purple party to the point where there is a very real chanceAustin will get a seat in thelegislaturethis fall.

Asked if his platform isracist, or anti-French, he is quick to rebuff.

"That's just nonsense," said Austin, whoconcedesthat the issues surrounding language are the biggestcriticismhis party faces from the general public.

"Language is always a hot button for us, but just because it's a sensitive issue doesn't mean we should shy away from it politically," said Austin.

"Matter of fact, because it is such a hot issue I think it's something politicians should talk more about. And of course, the debate should be respectful, and we have to find solutions in New Brunswick. We can't just continue to shy away from them because they're sensitive topics."

Supporters at the rally also disagree their calls for an end to dual services should be seen as anything more than "common sense."

"It makes me laugh in a way," said BoSheaves, who lives inNackawic and makes40-minutedrive to Fredericton each way daily to work at a grocery store. "First it made me a little bit angry. Now I just chuckle at it because it's the furthestthing.I'm half-French, my mother was a Levesque from the Grand Falls area.

"I would never be against the French people I would never be supporting any party that was anti-French. I would never support a party that was against the French population in this province. Or anything that would have anything to do with anti-French. I wouldn't be supporting the party."

For Sheaves, as everycandidateAustin met with during the day,the language issueboils down to dollars and cents they say the province doesn't have.

Countdown to the 24th

Austin talks with people as heeatschips and hotdogs, it hasn't been thehealthiest road diet, he admits.

But he's convinced it will all be worth it.

Four yearsago,Austin lost his home riding of Fredericton-Grand Lake by 26 votes (25, said Austin, after the recount.) Since then he's seen his party ranks swell, he said.

Memberships andcandidatesare about double what they were lastprovincialelection.

The latest projections from the CBC Poll Tracker suggest the People's Alliance of New Brunswick could get a single seat and6.6 per cent of the popular vote. That's not far off from the NDP's 7.3 per cent or the Greens' 8.1 per cent.

"My argument has always been that two parties operate so much the same there's no differential opinions, or ideas, or policies,between them," Austin said. "So we want to take a different approach and it's nice to see that people of New Brunswick arefinally catching onto that."