'There's ups and downs': Lawrence MacAulay on 30 years in Parliament

On Nov. 21, 1988, Lawrence MacAulay was elected as an MP for the P.E.I. riding of Cardigan. The big issue of the day was a free trade agreement with the United States.

MacAulay has represented Cardigan in the House of Commons ever since, winning a total of nine elections. At the age of 72, now agriculture minister, on the 30th anniversary of his first election, he said he plans to run again.

The big issue in his re-election bid may be a free-trade agreement with the United States.

Dairy farmers on the Island are upset with having to give up quota for the USMCA. After 30 years on the hill, MacAulay said he understands sometimes he is going to have to take some heat.

"There's ups and downs in everything. Being a farmer I'm well used to that," he said.

'Icredit it to having a great family'

MacAulay's own background is in dairy farming, and it was as a largely unknown farmer that he defeated Progressive Conservative incumbent Pat Binns (who would go on to become P.E.I. premier) to start a long political career.

In addition to his current job as agriculture minister, he has been labour minister and solicitor general.

"I credit it to having a great family, Frances and my three daughters, and a great organization," said MacAulay.

Nine years into being an MP,MacAulay was appointed to the labour portfolio. Five years later, when Solicitor General Andy Scott was forced to resign from cabinet following some indiscrete talk on a plane, Prime Minister Jean Chretien turned to MacAulay to replace him.

Terrifying moments

After that phone call MacAulay heard from his brother, who insisted the Scott scandal was a big problem, and Chretien would have to put his top man in to replace him.

"I knew what was going on because [Chretien] told me that evening that I was going to be the solicitor general. Well, I said very reluctantly, 'Yes, he has to put his top man in.' I was terrified," said MacAulay.

"He certainly wasn't talking about me and had no idea it would be me."

And so it was,MacAulay found himself as solicitor general during the 9/11 terrorist attack.

MacAulay was giving a talk at a small town in rural Nova Scotia at the time. Chretien ordered him back to Ottawa immediately.

Hopping on a plane after 9/11

"We had a motorcade right to Halifax International Airport. It was a parking lot for 747s. Something else indeed. Something you would never forget. It's horrifying," he said.

He had an opportunity to talk to his family, and they were concerned for his safety.

"They did not want me to get on the plane to Ottawa, but you have to," said MacAulay.

"When we were about to land the pilot came on, and the plane was full of RCMP, whatever that would have done, I don't know. You were always scared of getting shot down, of course, and they said we're one of five planes in North American airspace."

Resignation as solicitor general

MacAulay's own tenure as solicitor general would end in a forced resignation. He faced a number of allegations that he was directing government money to friends and family on the Island. He was cleared of all but one. The federal ethics counsellor found he had breached some obligations arranging funding for Holland College, where his brother was president.

MacAulay argued he was within his rights to support a major public institution on the Island, but still ended up resigning.

It was one of the most difficult moments of his career, he said, but he found the people of Cardigan were still willing to support him.

"I wouldn't, probably, be in politics now if that did not happen, because that actually boosted my confidence factor by 10 per cent," he said.

"People felt it was unfair."

'It's up to the people to decide if I did right or wrong'

MacAulay can think back on a number of accomplishmentshe takes pride in, the national park adjunct at Greenwich and a new plan for the ferry connecting to Nova Scotia near the top of the list. But he said there are other moments people don't know about that stick with him, as well.

"These things are all important, but probably the thing that would be the most gratifying is, let's say and it happens a single parent, mostly women with some children, around this time or even a bit later, unemployment didn't come, there's something wrong and you can get that straightened out and she gets her money three or four days before Christmas. I don't think there's anything that's more rewarding than that."

MacAulay said he is always ready for the next election, and will run again in 2019, but he will make no predictions about whether his tenure will continue.

"It's up to the people to decide if I did right or wrong or if I could have done better," he said.

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