Monday night, as CTV News projected a federal Liberal Party majority government on the big screen at the local Conservative Party campaign headquarters, a cheer went up in the room.
They were not reacting to the Liberal win, of course, but rather the graphic on the right side of the screen that showed their candidate, Cathay Wagantall’s lead continuing to grow.
While the mood in the Parkland Room at Painted Hand Casino was not exactly festive, it remained upbeat throughout the evening. The Conservative supporters, who gathered there had good reason to be happy with the local result. Wagantall picked up 21,630 of the 36,560 votes cast, fully one-third more than all her opponents combined representing a 59.2 per cent of the popular vote as a first time candidate. See the election results story this page for a full breakdown of the results.
While the result, or at least the margin, is at least partially attributable to the fact Yorkton-Melville is a “wonderfully Conservative” riding as Wagantall described it, she worked it as if she was in a tight race explaining that was the only way she could be satisfied with herself.
“If I want to be a member of Parliament with integrity, I have to be a candidate of integrity,” she said. “And I love that part of it; it gives me energy to meet people to hear what their concerns are and I feel that if you’re going to represent a riding you need to know your riding and so it’s absolutely paramount to me that I go out and run the campaign the way it should be regardless of what you think the outcome may be.”
Garry Breitkreuz, the outgoing Conservative MP and 22-year parliamentary veteran said the campaign was telling.
“I think it tells you what kind of character she has and what she’ll do for us in government,” he said. I think she’ll be a very hard-working MP and I think she’ll represent this riding very well.”
She will be representing Yorkton-Melville in a much-reduced 99-member Conservative caucus on the other side of the House, not exactly the position she hoped to be in heading to Ottawa.
“On the larger scale, of course we’re disappointed in the outcome, but at the same time, Canadians have spoken and they’ve spoken in huge numbers, so we’re prepared to go to Ottawa and I have a lot to assimilate yet and hear exactly how we’re going to proceed, but I’m looking forward to the opportunity to hold the new government accountable.”
Breitkreuz was also gracious about the national outcome.
“It’s a bittersweet moment for me,” he said. Cathay has done really well and I congratulate her for her huge win here locally, but I also am hopeful that the new Liberal government will do a good job. I would have rather had another result, but this is what Canadians have decided and I wish them all the best.
In his victory speech Monday Night Prime Minister-elect Justin Trudeau extended an olive branch repeating his oft-repeated remark that “Conservatives are not our enemies, they’re our neighbours,” and promising to be the “prime minister for all Canadians” and listen to all MPs. Wagantall was circumspect about the prospect of working with the Liberals.
“I will have to see what they’re going to do and what their plans are,” she said. “Obviously I’m of a different mindset. We had 80 billion dollars set and ready to go for infrastructure in Canada over the next 10 years, a significant amount of money, without going into debt. So, we obviously come at things from a different perspective when it comes to a number of issues like that, so we will hold them accountable, make sure what they do is best for Canada, if at all possible.”
Yorkton this week was unable to get hold of runner up Doug Ottenbreit of the NDP for comment.
Brooke Malinoski, the Liberal candidate was not surprised with her third place finish, but pleased at the same time.
“Of course, any candidate hopes to be elected, but we tripled the vote, which I think shows a lot of people in our area were dissatisfied with the current state of the Harper government.
Of course, she was “thrilled” with the national result.
“I am so proud of the Liberal Party,” she said. “I think it speaks volumes about who Justin Trudeau is and his leadership. I am so proud to be part of the change.”
