Hearn makes it official

By Dave Bartlett

FOR THE SOU’WESTER

The Telegram/Transcontinental Media

After almost three decades as a public figure, federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn is calling it a day.

Hearn told Transcontinental Media’s The Telegram Thursday afternoon that he will not be running in a federal election that is expected to be called early Sunday for Oct. 14.

"I've been in politics since I was about two," says Hearn, who remembers handing out campaign buttons before he was even in school.

As a young teacher on the Southern Shore, he worked behind the scenes with the provincial Progressive Conservatives.

He was involved in the "Dump Joey" campaign in the 1970s that helped get premier Frank Moores elected.

Hearn was teaching in Trepassey in 1982 when he finally decided to run and was elected into the government of Brian Peckford.

Hearn says the best thing about political life is working with people to improve their lives. Whether it was paving a road, building a school or some other project, Hearn had his hand in it.

"I can drive through my old provincial riding, go to any community, without exception, and point to something," Hearn says.

"There's nothing that can't be done if people pull together. Getting people to work with you is sometimes a challenge."

Hearn left provincial politics in 1993. He made the jump to federal politics in 2000, first winning his seat in a byelection in the spring and then a general election later that fall.

He was instrumental in the merger that created the Conservative Party of Canada in 2003.

"Maybe the biggest accomplishment was the ability to work with a small group to bring the two, then-split conservative parties together, because If that hadn't happened we would not be in government today." says Hearn.

"That changed the course of history."

Hearn became fisheries minister and the regional minister for Newfoundland and Labrador in February 2006, shortly after the Conservatives formed a minority government.

While campaigning before the last election - his fourth federal campaign six years - he promised his family it would be his last.

He also told Prime Minister Stephen Harper that two years ago.

Hearn says he didn't make it public before because he didn't want his constituents to think he wouldn't work as hard for them.

N.L. Premier Danny Williams has publicly said that he will campaign against the Harper government when an election is called. Williams has said he hopes this province will not elect a single federal Tory.

Though Williams' popularity remains high in the province, Hearn says the premier's ABC - Anything But Conservative - campaign didn't influence his decision not to run.

"It almost made me change my mind," says Hearn "I've never run from a fight in my life and, secondly, if I think there's going to be a fight then I want to know where it is so I can get into it."

Hearn says he's sure he could retain his seat, but he says he would be running for the wrong reasons.

He says he will be heavily involved in the campaign and will help the candidate who will replace him to try to hold the seat for the Conservatives.

Hearn adds he and Williams were never close, though they have worked closely together in the past on a variety of issues.

But, he says, in the last few years since Williams and Harper started their infamous feud, the federal government had to work around the provincial government instead of working with it. He says that's unfortunate.

Hearn called some of Williams' rhetoric both "truth-twisting" and "underhanded."

When asked if he would do anything different, Hearn quickly replied he has no regrets.

"You can't be sorry. I mean, we all can go back and you know, look at the Utopia that might be available if you had done this ... but look, I've said over and over if I had my life to relive from my growing up in small fishing community, a poor fishing family, to doing international work on behalf of the country, I wouldn't change a thing, I've enjoyed every minute of it," he says.

"I'm probably at the stage were I can accomplish as much or more because ... I'm at the stage where I just don't give a darn," says Hearn.

But he says it is time for him to leave the world of politics behind.

"It's like playing hockey. There comes a time when you know that you might be at your peak, but it doesn't take long to go downgrade," he says.

What will he do next?

"I haven't been passing around resumes," Hearn says.

He says he knows of a number of opportunities, but he says after 50 years in the workforce as a teacher, principal, politician and political insider, he's looking forward to some time to himself. He also wants to spend some time with his grandchildren.

"I'm not going to be sitting home, you know, digging potatoes all the time, though I'd like to get back to my garden again," he says.