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- 2002-10-07
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In the new riding of Kanata-Carleton, the doctor is in, the ailing incumbent is out.
Conservative Dr. Merrilee Fullerton, a retired physician and health-care advocate, comfortably swept to victory Thursday in a riding that has traditionally voted Tory, but clearly benefitted from the change winds that were blowing through Ontario.
By 9:30 p.m., Fullerton was ahead by more than 3,500 votes and the party at Don Cherry’s in Kanata — standing room only — was loud, boisterous and full of whoops and hollering, not all of it connected to the Stanley Cup finals game.
Led in by a bagpiper, Fullerton, a political newcomer, looked ecstatic at the victory, hugging supporters as she wove through the crowd to the sound of the rock classic Taking Care of Business.
“It’s been an amazing experience,” she told supporters, joking about the past two years as the world’s longest job interview. “I am so grateful to everyone.”
Jack MacLaren, the MPP since 2011, bumbled his way out of the Tory party in 2017 and couldn’t get much traction running under the little-known Trillium Party banner. He was on his way to a distant fifth-place finish, a stinging repudiation by voters
“I’ve got no regrets,” said MacLaren, speaking with supporters at the Marshes Golf Club, and clearly surprised at the size of the Progressive Conservative vote. “For the past year, I’ve been able to speak my mind and vote for what’s best for the people in my riding.”
NDP candidate John Hansen certainly gained from the upswing in the provincial campaign, his improved name recognition and the popularity of leader Andrea Horwath. It was his third time running for the party (once federally), and the first time he finished second, polling ahead of the Liberal.
He said the NDP needs to do a better job of appealing to voters outside the urban core. He also said he expected this would be his last campaign in the riding.
From Day 1, the obvious political consideration in Kanata-Carleton centred on the MacLaren effect.
He had been a popular incumbent — with pluralities of 10,000 and 9,100 in the past two elections — but he’d been unceremoniously dumped by the Conservatives after a series of gaffes, some of them sexist and most inviting ridicule.
In May 2017 — now on the outs with his former backer, doomed leader Patrick Brown — MacLaren became the only sitting member at Queen’s Park for the Trillium Party, a political affiliation little known to voters.
Barred from running for the Tories again, the Conservatives instead turned to Fullerton, who possessed a profile more in tune with their modern remake: female, urban and professional.
It was clear the Liberals saw her as the frontrunner: They engaged in a campaign to embarrass her by hauling out old tweets that hinted at Islamophobia and support for two-tier medicine.
Complicating the picture a little further were the changes in the riding boundaries.
The former Carleton-Mississippi Mills — which gave MacLaren in excess of 50 per cent of the vote in 2011 — lost a good part of its rural flanks, making the new riding much more urban and less in tune with his emphasis on small government, individual rights and social conservatism.
The Liberals had turned to Stephanie Maghnam, an entrepreneur and longtime resident with an impressive volunteer record. However, the tides were against her, as even the party collapsed under the weight of an unpopular leader and the baggage of 15 years in government.
Related
— With files from Jim Bagnall
kegan@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
查看原文...
Conservative Dr. Merrilee Fullerton, a retired physician and health-care advocate, comfortably swept to victory Thursday in a riding that has traditionally voted Tory, but clearly benefitted from the change winds that were blowing through Ontario.
By 9:30 p.m., Fullerton was ahead by more than 3,500 votes and the party at Don Cherry’s in Kanata — standing room only — was loud, boisterous and full of whoops and hollering, not all of it connected to the Stanley Cup finals game.
Led in by a bagpiper, Fullerton, a political newcomer, looked ecstatic at the victory, hugging supporters as she wove through the crowd to the sound of the rock classic Taking Care of Business.
“It’s been an amazing experience,” she told supporters, joking about the past two years as the world’s longest job interview. “I am so grateful to everyone.”
Jack MacLaren, the MPP since 2011, bumbled his way out of the Tory party in 2017 and couldn’t get much traction running under the little-known Trillium Party banner. He was on his way to a distant fifth-place finish, a stinging repudiation by voters
“I’ve got no regrets,” said MacLaren, speaking with supporters at the Marshes Golf Club, and clearly surprised at the size of the Progressive Conservative vote. “For the past year, I’ve been able to speak my mind and vote for what’s best for the people in my riding.”
NDP candidate John Hansen certainly gained from the upswing in the provincial campaign, his improved name recognition and the popularity of leader Andrea Horwath. It was his third time running for the party (once federally), and the first time he finished second, polling ahead of the Liberal.
He said the NDP needs to do a better job of appealing to voters outside the urban core. He also said he expected this would be his last campaign in the riding.
From Day 1, the obvious political consideration in Kanata-Carleton centred on the MacLaren effect.
He had been a popular incumbent — with pluralities of 10,000 and 9,100 in the past two elections — but he’d been unceremoniously dumped by the Conservatives after a series of gaffes, some of them sexist and most inviting ridicule.
In May 2017 — now on the outs with his former backer, doomed leader Patrick Brown — MacLaren became the only sitting member at Queen’s Park for the Trillium Party, a political affiliation little known to voters.
Barred from running for the Tories again, the Conservatives instead turned to Fullerton, who possessed a profile more in tune with their modern remake: female, urban and professional.
It was clear the Liberals saw her as the frontrunner: They engaged in a campaign to embarrass her by hauling out old tweets that hinted at Islamophobia and support for two-tier medicine.
Complicating the picture a little further were the changes in the riding boundaries.
The former Carleton-Mississippi Mills — which gave MacLaren in excess of 50 per cent of the vote in 2011 — lost a good part of its rural flanks, making the new riding much more urban and less in tune with his emphasis on small government, individual rights and social conservatism.
The Liberals had turned to Stephanie Maghnam, an entrepreneur and longtime resident with an impressive volunteer record. However, the tides were against her, as even the party collapsed under the weight of an unpopular leader and the baggage of 15 years in government.
Related
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- Ontario election: Ghamari set to take new riding of Carleton and carry on Tory-blue tradition
- Nathalie Des Rosiers staves off NDP push to recapture Ottawa-Vanier
- Ontario election: Lisa MacLeod dances to victory in Nepean
— With files from Jim Bagnall
kegan@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
查看原文...
