deachman: ford's wasted election may yet hold benefits for ottawa
while some experienced mpps will return to queen's park, new faces should also offer a fresh defence of ottawa's needs.
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catherine mckenney, new mpp for ottawa centre, celebrates victory with friends, family and supporters in downtown ottawa thursday night.
tony caldwell
/
postmedia
the election that few people not named ford wanted is at last in the books.
i’m tempted to say that while the campaign only lasted a month, the sighs of relief are long. i certainly feel that way, but, when i dropped by severn avenue public school early thursday evening to talk with ottawa west-nepean residents out exercising their right to vote, most still had plenty to say, as if they needed one final flush to get it all out of their systems.
would premier doug ford’s vacillation on donald trump hurt or harm his chances, one voter wondered? another said she was voting strategically. another refused to do that, saying he voted for the candidate he thought would best serve the riding. a dual canadian-u.s. citizen called it a “crucial” election because of trump’s “economic warfare.”
one woman, who said she’d conducted her own polling by going to public places such as carlingwood mall and asking strangers what they thought, felt ford was opportunistic in calling the election, but didn’t judge him all that harshly for it. “that’s just politics.”
maybe, but it’s a sad indictment because, after it was all said and done, premier doug ford spent a king’s ransom — $189 million — of ontarians’ money to hold a snap election that changed almost nothing. the majority government he already had — 79 of 124 seats — wasn’t a strong enough mandate to fight trump’s tariffs, he argued. he needed more. (it certainly had nothing to do with trying to snag another four years at the helm before voters got to know liberal leader bonnie crombie — although on that count it worked as crombie lost her seat.)
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with 99.93 per cent of polls reporting, it appears ford’s progressive conservatives won 80 seats, just one more than they had going in. is that the stronger mandate ford needed? is trump crying “uncle” from mar-a-lago?
such a waste.
ottawa, meanwhile, will be sending both old and new faces to queen’s park. not surprisingly, every incumbent is returning. but how will this help ottawa?
in ottawa south, for example, john fraser, whose lawn signs quaintly urged voters to “re-elect a good mpp,” claimed his fifth consecutive victory since taking the riding’s reins from dalton mcguinty in 2013.
liberal incumbents lucille collard and stephen blais, meanwhile, representing ottawa-vanier and orléans, respectively, will return to queen’s park, as will glengarry-prescott-russell tory stéphane sarrazin.
one of the ridings where the race was expected to be tight — ottawa west-nepean — proved anticlimactic as ndp incumbent chandra pasma easily outpaced runner-up husien abu-rayash, who, after failing to win the conservative nomination in nepean, moved over one riding.
additionally, kanata-carleton liberal karen mccrimmon fended off a competitive challenge by conservative scott phelan to earn her return to toronto.
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except for the fact that only one of these incumbents will be sitting on the government’s side of the house, their return to queen’s park should help ottawans — at least for the experience each brings.
and, while former city councillor and mayoral candidate catherine mckenney isn’t an incumbent, their win holds the seat for the ndp. mckenney’s outspokenness and advocacy for social issues will bring a strong voice to the riding, especially on such files as homelessness, housing and the rejuvenation of ottawa’s downtown.
that said, it’s overly optimistic to think that ottawa will be getting a tonne of love from the premier. with nepean flipping from the conservatives’ lisa macleod, who didn’t run, to liberal tyler watt, the only tory elected in the city’s eight urban or suburban ridings is newcomer george darouze, who left his city council seat to claim the carleton seat. (additionally, a thin sliver of glengarry-prescott-russell is in ottawa proper).
it’s highly unlikely, given his inexperience provincially, that darouze will see the inside of ford’s cabinet room, although, with no other ottawa tories elected, he may slip in out of political expedience on the part of the premier. we can only hope that ford will recognize the potential value in giving ottawa representation in his cabinet.
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ottawa mayor mark sutcliffe said on friday that, while having only one local mpp in government wasn’t ideal, he expected it wouldn’t harm his relationship with ford. he also said he expected darouze would be “a strong voice for all of ottawa at queen’s park.”
the mayor fell short of saying that he’d lobby the premier on darouze’s behalf, saying that it was the premier’s decision and that he would only offer his opinion if asked.
“it’s always good when you have someone who has a seat at the table, and, if it were up to me, my preference would be see a local representative at the cabinet table, but, at the same time, over the last two years, during periods when there has not been a local mpp in cabinet, i think we’ve gotten a lot done.”
ford offered ottawa a hopeful sign during his victory speech thursday night, when he reiterated his campaign promise to upload ottawa’s lrt. perhaps, if ottawa voters see him bring the goods, they’ll give him a stronger mandate the next time he calls a snap election.
bdeachman@postmedia.com
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