liberal mark gerretsen wins landslide in kingston and the islands
kingston and the islands votes 2-1 for liberal incumbent over conservative challenger
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re-elected kingston and the islands mp mark gerretsen arrives at his campaign wrap up party in kingston on monday. (elliot ferguson/the whig-standard/postmedia network)
elliot ferguson
/
the whig-standard
kingston — liberal incumbent mark gerretsen won a landslide victory in kingston and the islands to be part of a mark carney government monday night.
gerretsen won his fourth election in less than a decade, defeating his closest rival, conservative candidate bryan paterson, by a nearly two-to-one margin.
by early tuesday, with more than 95 per cent of polls reporting, gerretsen had won 63.5 per cent of the vote, almost 47,000 votes. paterson trailed with 30 per cent of the votes, more than 22,000 votes.
new democratic candidate daria juudi-hope won almost five per cent of the vote with and green candidate fintan hartnett had 1.4 per cent of the ballots.
of the 106,997 eligible voters in the riding, 68.9 per cent — 73,717 — cast ballots on monday night’s election.
it was gerretsen’s biggest margin of victory in a federal election.
“i am extremely humble and grateful that the people of kingston and the islands are putting their faith in me,” said gerretsen, who was joined by close to 100 supporters at a campaign celebration.
“i do know that there are a lot of progressive voters that may have otherwise would not have voted for me or didn’t in the past and i am extremely grateful for that.”
gerretsen from the outset framed this election as a question of national leadership in the face of a trade war and threats of annexation by the united states.
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“i think what we say tonight is a strong mandate from the canadian people,” he said.
“in this particular time that we are in right now with the economic uncertainty and the threats from donald trump,” gerretsen said. “it is mark carney who is best suited to lead us.”
newly re-elected kingston and the islands liberal mp mark gerretsen speaks to supporters after results were announced on monday. (elliot ferguson/the whig-standard/postmedia network)
elliot ferguson
/
the whig-standard
gerretsen’s win was part of a remarkable turnabout in political fortunes for the liberal party, which only four months ago was facing polls that indicated it would suffer a massive defeat.
gerretsen said the local issues of affordability and housing will remain priorities for him, as will getting a permanent replacement bridge built on the lasalle causeway.
he also said the federal government needs to have greater oversight on how the ontario provincial government spends federal funding for health care.
“the federal government helps the province a lot with health care and the reality is that there are a lot of people that still don’t have doctors in our riding and a lot of people experiencing long wait times in hospital an emergency rooms,” he said.
on a personal note, gerretsen said he would be interested in continuing his involvement in the party’s house of commons leadership team.
“i really enjoyed the last number of years being parliamentary secretary to the house leader and being deputy house leader for the last couple of years,” he said. “anything i can do that continues to put me in the house of commons in the position of debating and engaging with other members is what i want to be doing.”
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elferguson@postmedia.com
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