COUNTY - South Shore-St. Margarets Liberals are looking to the past to help them get a future seat in parliament.

 Chester lawyer and former MP Derek Wells announced last week he intends to seek the federal nomination.

 He was elected in 1993 during the Chretien Liberal landslide and served only one term. After a tenure that saw the Liberal government introduce employment insurance cuts and a firearms registry, voters in this largely rural riding turfed him in 1997 in favour of current Conservative MP Gerald Keddy. He unsuccessfully re-tried for the seat in 2000 but lost again to Mr. Keddy.

 In an interview last week, Mr. Wells said he expects to get questions about the registry and plans to address the issue should he become the candidate. There should be accommodation made for lawful gun owners and rural Canadians, he said.

 As for the other cuts that happened, he said he believes the electorate learned to accept decisions of the Liberals to do "what we had to do to get the deficit under control.

 "I think people understood them once they saw we were beginning to reinvest the money we saved by those cuts into things like day care, early childhood learning and those sorts of programs," Mr. Wells said.

 Surpluses built up by the Liberal governments of the past were frittered away by Stephen Harper Conservative administrations, he said, noting Canadians would be better off with better bookkeeping from the grits.

 "And that is what the Liberals delivered when they were in power and I think that's what we would deliver again if we get back."

 The 62-year-old married father of six is the current president of the Nova Scotia Liberal Party, sits on the South Shore-St.Margarets Liberal Association executive as past president and is a member-at-large of the Chester-St. Margarets Liberal Association.

 While active in the party, Mr. Wells said he felt he could be of better service being MP.

 "When I say I really can't sit idly by and watch what Stephen Harper is doing, I mean that. I just don't like his type of politics and I feel we have to have a strong alternative in the South Shore when it comes election day."

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 Mr. Wells submitted his nomination paperwork weeks ago. The deadline for filing is September 15. While others are rumoured to have taken out paperwork, Mr. Wells was the sole Liberal nominee as of late last week.

 South Shore-St. Margarets Liberals choose their candidate October 3. The time and location weren't announced as of last week.

posted on 09/15/09