Margarett Best has secured her seat in the 40^th legislative assembly of Ontario. The residents of Scarborough—Guildwood re-elected Liberal candidate Best with a landslide victory. In a race

said to be very heated with Conservative candidate Gary Ellis, Best won the riding with 49 per cent of the vote, while Ellis came second with 27 per cent.

Best, alongside her family, campaign staff, volunteers, and supporters celebrated a successful campaign at the Prague Restaurant, located at 450 Scarborough Golf Club Road in Scarborough.

The restaurant specializes in Eastern European fare which is characteristic of the distinct community Best referred to in her acceptance speech late Thursday night.

“Scarborough—Guildwood is one of the most diverse ridings in Ontario,” she told the multicultural crowd , a fitting backdrop for the re-election of the first black woman to provincial parliament in Ontario. The room, decorated in posters of Best, was filled with a legion of Liberal supporters. Many wore red shirts with the word “Best” in bold letters across them and gallantly cheered as another Liberal candidate was declared victorious on the television screen.

As Best was confirmed re-elected at 9:30 p.m. the jovial, celebratory mood was thick in the room early in the evening. Several times throughout the night the room erupted in a chant of “Four more years.” One supporter blew a vuvuzela, the instrument that gained popularity during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Best drank a celebratory and symbolic glass of red wine as she greeted and thanked her supporters.

Best, who emigrated from Jamaica, has lived in Toronto for 35 years and attended the University of Toronto at Scarborough, which happens to be in the riding she represents today. She then went on to study law at Osgoode Hall. Best practiced law and was very active in the community before delving into politics five years ago.

Surrounded by her three children Ryan, Colin and Kiesha she spoke of her struggles to succeed.  Being a single mother while attending post-secondary school ,she raised her three children, worked in a law office, and had two part-time jobs.  She  was orphaned at 11, and was raised by her older sister Clair ,who was also at the victory party.  Best recounted a conversation she had with her son, Colin, the day prior to the election in which she admitted she was stung by reports that labelled her a weak candidate and only a mother.

“He said ‘Mom, that’s the best job to have’,” she told the crowd.

In an interview earlier in the evening, Best was asked how she felt to have a second term in office.

“I’m very excited. I feel honoured and privileged to serve under the leadership of the premier and to serve the people of Scarborough-Guildwood as their representative again.”

When asked about poll results showing a strong support for the Liberal party in Ontario, Best attributed the success to the, “good work we have done in the past eight years in the province, we have a good record to stand on despite the global economic challenges. Ontario has come out better than most places in the world in health, education and the economy.”

With a large number of provincial Liberal candidates re-elected Best believes the people of Ontario are saying, “we need a stable hand in uncertain times as Premier McGuinty has said and I think the people in Ontario have agreed with him, they have also adopted our slogan that ‘We are going to go forward together’.”

Best’s closing words were a reference to her favourite Bob Marley song “One Love”, and with four more years Best promised she will continue to foster that unifying spirit throughout her riding and throughout the province, as she now awaits word if she will continue on in her post of minister of sports promotion and health in the next cabinet.

SCARBOROUGH – With his birthday coming only two weeks after the election, Lorenzo Berardinetti has more reasons than one to celebrate.

Berardinetti, 49, who was re-elected in to his third term in the riding of Scarborough Southwest, won with 14,585 votes or 44.1 per cent. Bruce Budd of the New Democratic Party came in second with 10,404 votes (31.5 per cent), while Mike Chopowick of the Progressive Conservative party came in third with 7,061 votes (21.3 per cent).

He will be turning 50 on October 21.

With news of the Liberal party’s anticipated victory breaking before Berardinetti’s arrival, many supporters waiting at his constituency office Thursday night were already feasting on salads, lasagna and an abundance of desserts while others indulged on beer and champagne. Berardinetti and his wife, Michelle, entered to rapturous applause.

“I want to thank everybody for their help, all the volunteers, my lovely wife, who has helped me by my side the whole way through and my parents, who have been going through this since 1988. They worry more than anyone else but they love their son so that’s why they do it,” Berardinetti said, in his speech.

He also lavished praise on his campaign team, calling some of them “Relentless Liberal gladiators.”

Asked how he felt with the  result, he described it as “A sense of relief.”

Citing the fact that he had won by two votes when he was first elected to the former Scarborough city council in 1988, Berardinetti said, “It’s a sense of accomplishment and of happiness since you always do worry during campaigns.”

“I knew it was going to be a tight race. I became the first Liberal to get elected [in the riding] back in 2003 so it’s nice to be able to win again,” he said.  Listen to the interview with the candidate here.

Berardinetti, who studied law at the University of Windsor and was called to the Ontario bar two years later, said that had he not won in ‘88, he would have gone on to practice law. He is currently the Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Labour.

In his campaign platform, Berardinetti put a strong focus on job creation and economic growth, as well as education and healthcare for his constituency.

In an earlier interview, Berardinetti blamed Tim Hudak, leader of the Progressive Conservative party, for misconstruing the training tax credit proposal as “Immigrants get jobs and Canadian’s don’t.” The proposal will give employers who hire newcomers to Canada a $10,000 grant. A survey conducted by Abacus data showed that 62 per cent of Ontarians opposed the newcomers training tax credit plan while 23 per cent supported it.

Berardinetti said there are many immigrants who are Canadian citizens in his constituency and have proper accreditations from other countries. He acknowledged that it was difficult for him to continue encouraging immigrants to look for jobs in their fields of expertise when Canadian qualifications are usually favored over  foreign ones.

“We want to have people who are highly skilled. Engineers can’t find jobs, the doctors, the architects… it doesn’t really apply to people who have just gotten here but it applies to Canadians who can’t find jobs,” he said.

As another plan to increase jobs, Berardinetti said that the new Green Energy Act, which a recent poll by Oraclepoll Research Limited showed that a majority of Ontarians supported, will aim to install solar panels and wind turbines to foster the growth of various renewable energy projects.

Hudak has opposed the $7 billion project, which the Liberals say will create in excess of 15,000 jobs, because it requires subsidies from taxpayers to create and operate plants in Ontario.

Berardinetti says that while his riding of Scarborough Southwest is incompatible for wind turbines to be created due to a lack of wind, other companies involved will be more inclined to do business in Ontario since its reputable standing in education and healthcare will prompt prospective employees to work and bring their families here.

Other plans in Berardinetti’s platform include a $4.4 million investment in Variety Village and The Children’s Charity. Others due to receive large funding include Providence Healthcare ($218,352), Scarborough Village Youth Service Provider’s Network ($220,700), Cliffcrest Community Centre ($375,000) and Second base Youth Shelter ($220,000).

For his immediate plans, Berardinetti says he first aims to tackle the issue of the Quarry Lands development, where plans for condominiums to be built near Clonmore Drive and Gerrard Street East over a potentially “contaminated” former quarry and garbage dumpsite have already been approved.

Negotiations between residents and city officials have been at an impasse since 2004 with the developers, Conservatory Group and Build Toronto, so far reluctant to modify proposals to one acceptable to all parties.

“We don’t know what’s down there. There could be contaminants so I’m going to do everything in my power to continue working with the Ministry of Environment to ensure that before anything is built it goes through a proper environmental assessment,” Berardinetti said.

Supporters voiced their delight at Berardinetti’s victory.

“We won today by a landslide and I’m very happy,” said Athiq Sediqzadah, vice president of external affairs for the Young Liberals Association at the University of Toronto Scarborough.

He added, “With the provincial policy now to lower tuition by 30 per cent, I think it’s a great stride as far as interference with financial obligations to students go.”

Michelle Berardinetti, city councillor for Scarborough Southwest (Ward 35) who also sits on Mayor Rob Ford’s executive committee, said that they were humble in the face of the result and thankful to all the residents of the riding.

When asked whether there were any conflicts between she and her husband’s political perspectives, she said, “I feel that I am a Liberal who brings a centralist, moderate and thoughtful approach to the executive [committee].”

Soon after marrying in 2005, Berardinetti tabled a bill that aimed at outlawing “gender-based pricing”, after witnessing the disproportion in costs of similar services when he was out shopping with his wife. He claimed that the practice is discriminatory and an act of human rights violation.

“A dollar in my hand should be worth the same as a dollar in your hand or anyone’s hand in the province of Ontario,” he told CBC. The bill has yet to be passed in to law.

“Celebration” by Kool and the Gang was playing as a beaming Mike Colle, 66, arrived at California Sandwiches on Dufferin Street, a block away from his campaign office. Colle was re-elected for his fifth consecutive term as MPP in the Eglinton-Lawrence riding on Thursday and was greeted by media and a sea of cheering, dancing fans, supporters, family, and friends, all wearing red “Mike Colle” hats, shirts, and pins.

Despite the Conservatives’ high hopes for former mayoral candidate Rocco Rossi, Colle won by 8,005 votes in the 2011 provincial election. Colle’s campaign team announced his victory against Progressive Conservative candidate Rossi and NDP candidate Gerti Dervishi minutes before 10 p.m.

Colle was in the lead with 54.3 per cent of votes, or 20,807, followed by Rossi with 33.4 per cent or 12,802, and Dervishi lagging behind with 9.8 per cent or 3,767 votes.

“People didn’t forget the cuts of Mike Harris, the closing of the subway, the closing of the hospital, they [voters] didn’t want to see that again,” Colle said.

“They [voters] said we have cuts at city hall, we have the Tories in Ottawa, we don’t want to see control by one party at all three levels,” he told reporters.

Not all of Colle’s previous campaigns were as successful as this year’s.

In 2007 Colle scraped by Tory opponent Bernie Tanz with only 2,145 votes. The election came shortly after a $32 million scandal which forced Colle to resign from his post as minister of citizenship and immigration. Colle attributes this year’s success to people’s unwillingness to “see blue everywhere.” Listen to Teona Baetu’s interview with Colle here.

During his past four terms as Liberal MPP, Colle championed many causes, including saving the Eglinton Theatre and the Oak Ridges Moraine, which he calls one of his proudest accomplishments.

“Over a million acres of some of the most critically sensitive environmental land in Ontario has been protected under a greenbelt. And that is the opportunity I’ve had as an MPP to take on those battles which I thought were important to me,” Colle said at an all candidate’s meeting last month.

Colle, who is of Italian background, came to Canada when he was five, and is passionate about newcomers’ integration in Canadian society. He introduced legislation protecting nannies from exploitation. Bill 210 regulates recruitment agencies of oversees nannies looking for employment in Ontario.

“They [nannies] were being kept in basements, their passports were taken…they were living in fear because they weren’t protected under the Ontario labour code,” Colle said at the time.

A father of four and grandfather of five, Colle has lived in the Eglinton-Lawrence area for 30 years and raised his family there, with his wife Sharon.

He plans to spend Thanksgiving eating “turkey with all the trimmings” and spending time with his grandchildren before returning to Queen’s Park.

The first issue he plans to address at Queen’s Park is the building of the Eglinton Crosstown Light Rail Transit (LRT).

“[I’m] making sure the Eglinton subway gets build. [I will] make sure that gets done. We have been waiting for 15 years to get this darn thing done,” Colle said Thursday.

Colle, who served as a TTC commissioner for the Metropolitan Toronto Council, and was TTC chair from 1988 to 1994, is a big supporter of the TTC. He likes to boast that his father never owned a car and relied on public transportation.
The Eglinton Crosstown LRT was Colle’s top priority this past campaign, even though its construction has dragged on for a long time. The project was first proposed in 1974, but not as an LRT. Work began in 1994, but was cancelled by former Conservative premier Mike Harris in 1995.

“I tell people, I’m a marathon runner, so therefore I never give up,” Colle said in an interview with myTownCrier.

Shovels have not yet hit the dirt in the construction of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, but work on the design of the tunnel and stations started in January 2011. The Eglinton Crosstown LRT will run from Black Creek Drive to Scarborough Centre. Its expected completion date is 2020.

It  was a very exciting Thursday night for newly elected Liberal MPP Tracy MacCharles in the Pickering-Scarborough East riding.

MacCharles held her campaign headquarters party at the Lone Star Texas Grill in Pickering. She arrived at 10:30 p.m. where a crowd chanting, “Tracy! Tracy!” greeted her. The room was electric with the excitement of her friends, family, and supporters and filled with the smells of hot fajitas,  Lone Star’s specialty.

Her main opponent, PC candidate Kevin Gaudet was on hand to graciously introduce MacCharles as “Your new MPP.”

The Liberal candidate took an early lead in the poll. Just 45 minutes after the polls closed, MacCharles was elected by nearly 47 per cent of the votes. Gaudet won 33.6 per cent of the votes, and NDP candidate Nerissa Carino won 16.7 per cent.

“It feels fantastic, it’s just a great victory for all of us tonight,” MacCharles said to reporters about her success.

“The residents, the volunteers, and my family – we’re just thrilled.”

MacCharles, 48, was born and raised in Scarborough and now lives in Pickering with her husband Stephen Little, and twin children Genevieve and Travis.

This was MacCharles’ first run in a political campaign. Although some may consider her to be a rookie, her roots in her own riding and passions for Liberal ideals may have helped her gain the headway she needed to finish strong in the elections. Listen to Carleigh O’Connell’s interview with the candidate here.

“We [Liberals] believe in hard work, the value of a good education and the importance of having high quality health care services,” MacCharles said in a previous interview. “We have replaced so many jobs that were lost during the recession and more jobs were created in Ontario than the rest of Canada – something we can be proud of.”

A couple of the issues MacCharles plans to tackles while she moves into her role of MPP include addressing the constant gridlock of the Highway 401 corridor in Pickering and looking at the high level of unemployment in the city.

“Going forward it will just be what I always do: engage the community, listen to what the issues and opportunities are, talk to experts, and work my hardest to represent Pickering-Scarborough East.”

McCharles’ friends and family offered her great support throughout the campaign process, and throughout her recent two-time battled with breast cancer. When asked about her immediate plans, MacCharles said she would reconnect with her family.

“The first thing I’ve been telling everyone is that I’m going to have dinner at my dining room table,” she said. “The table has been like an office and my schedule has been very irregular, as you can imagine.”

Brad Duguid wins October 6 election, photo by Sarah Taguiam

SCARBOROUGH – Entering the doors of Cafe La Roche at Lawrence Ave. and Birchmount Rd., re-elected MPP Brad Duguid was instantly swarmed by supporters Thursday night, congratulating his third consecutive victory in Scarborough Centre.

With 51.3 per cent of the riding’s votes, Duguid, whose political career spans 23 years, won against rookie Progressive Conservative Carol Williams and second-time NDP candidate Kathleen Mathurin, who earned 24.2 and 21.7 per cent respectively.

The crowd, eagerly waving placards with the Liberal slogan Forward Together, parted as the newly elected MPP climbed the makeshift podium to deliver his speech.

“Thank you from the bottom of my heart to the great people of Scarborough Centre who had the confidence to elect me as their MPP for three consecutive elections,” Duguid roared, all smiles as he singled out members of his campaign team. “I’m so grateful, so privileged…this is the best campaign, I think, this riding has ever seen.”

In an interview a week before the election, Duguid predicted his long years of service to Scarborough and his familiarity to residents for his eventual win.

“[Residents] often have some knowledge or relationship with me personally and they know my reputation as a hardworking representative,” he said.

Duguid, 49, first assumed provincial office in 2003, followed by a re-election in 2007. Prior to that, he was also a staple in Scarborough’s municipal government where he served three terms as a city councillor in 1994, 1997 and 2000.

Several cabinet shuffles saw him appointed, first, as the minister of labour then to aboriginal affairs. Currently Ontario’s energy minister, Duguid was under intense public scrutiny for championing the Liberals’ Green Energy Act.

Slated to decrease Ontario’s 6.4 per cent unemployment rate, the party officials claim it has created 20,000 jobs with 50,000 more underway by the end of next year – figures that pundits say are inaccurate.

PC candidate Pam Hundal from Brampton Springdale called the energy plan an “expensive experiment” that has only generated “phantom jobs” for the province, during the Sept. 22 GTA candidates’ debate hosted by CBC’s “Metro Morning”.

Undeterred by criticisms, Duguid accused his opponents of “foolish economics,” in an interview last Friday. He affirmed that the green energy campaign will not only boost Ontario’s economy but will also turn the province into a world leader in research and innovation. Listen to an excerpt of an interview with Duguid here.

“The most important thing in our economy are ideas, as ideas generate wealth. We have many companies now in Ontario that are building on that,” said Duguid, pointing to Scarborough-based solar panel export company Eclipsol as an example.

Another much-debated aspect of the Liberal policy was the $10,000 tax credit to be awarded to employers for training highly-skilled immigrants. Designed to level the playing field in ridings like Scarborough Centre where the immigrant population is 26 per cent higher than the provincial average, the policy was criticized by the PCs and the New Democrats as being overly accommodating to newcomers.

This statement led Duguid to accuse his rivals of “blatantly ignoring everything foreign.” He was concerned that his opponents’ “American-style politics of division, resentment or anger” will prevent Ontario from weathering a global recession.

But his Thursday night win allowed him to, for a while, cast away all those worries.

Yelling over the upbeat music and the sound of his supporters cheering in the background, Duguid, a Scarborough native, said his win was vindication enough.

“At the end of the day, I think Ontarians opted to continue building a stronger, leaner, brighter future,” he said. “They didn’t get side tracked by short-terms policies and 30-second clip policies that really weren’t designed to build that stronger and better future for our kids,” he continued, in between handshakes and congratulatory hugs.

Just in time for Thanksgiving, the re-elected Scarborough Centre MPP, surrounded by his wife Crystal and sons Kennedy and Jordan, said he will be spending the weekend with family who have yet to see him after two and a half months on the campaign trail.

“I have a feeling this will be one Thanksgiving that we all have a lot to be grateful for,” he quipped.

The people in riding of Scarborough-Agincourt showed that they were still loyal to the Liberal party.

Liberal candidate Soo Wong won the riding with a strong showing that saw her receive 47 per cent of the popular vote. Progressive Conservative candidate Liang Chen placed second and received 32 per cent of the vote while NDP candidate Paul Choi finished third and received 16 per cent of the vote. The Liberal party won 53 seats in the election and will form a minority government.

Coming into this election, there was a lot of uncertainty as to who would win the riding of Scarborough-Agincourt. The riding was seemingly up for grabs after Gerry Phillips, the Liberal MPP who had held this seat for the past 24 years, retired prior to this election.

“I’m thrilled to see that the people of Scarborough-Agincourt believe and trust in what the Liberal government stands for,” Wong said Thursday during a scrum at her post election party at Queen Victoria’s Pub and Catering located at Midland Avenue and Progress. “I’m thrilled that they believe in us and continue to let us serve this community.”  Listen to an interview with her here.

The atmosphere at the pub was upbeat and happy as soon as the early poll counts showing Wong in the lead started appearing on large televisions mounted on walls all over the pub. Shortly after the polls declared her the early winner, Wong arrived at the pub to loud cheers and standing ovations. She was immediately surrounded by reporters and photographers and participated in a small scrum before breaking off to hug her supporters and staff members. After a little while when she was declared the official winner, Wong and Phillips took to a stage where Phillips first said a few words congratulating Wong and her team which was then followed by a speech from Wong.

“Soo has a reputation for getting things done and we were lucky to persuade her to be our candidate,” Phillips said. “She’ll be a perfect fit for Scarborough-Agincourt and I’m thrilled that tonight she’s been elected.”

Though she supported all the issues outlined in the Liberal platform, education and health care were the two most important issues Wong campaigned on. Her focus on these two issues comes from her career as a registered nurse for 25 years and also a nursing and pharmacy professor at Humber College. Wong has also served as a Toronto District School Board (TDSB) trustee for Ward 20 Scarborough-Agincourt since 2006. She was also the head of TDSB’s operations and facilities management committee which is responsible for managing the TDSB’s capital assets.

“Today marks a new milestone for families across Scarborough-Agincourt for strong public education and health care,” Wong said in her victory speech. “It marks a new milestone for our students from junior kindergarten to post secondary and for our seniors.”

In her speech, Wong also thanked everybody involved in her campaign and credited them for her win. She specifically focused on thanking Phillips who she said “was like a mentor” to me and her campaign manager Han Dong. She also acknowledged the six candidates from the other parties in the riding who ran against her and said that each of them had a purpose and a plan for this area and they were to be commended for running and trying to achieve them. Wong reserved her highest praise for her “beloved students” and thanked them for being there for her since the very beginning and bringing energy to her campaign. Wong promised them that she would always continue to be there for them.

Answering questions about her trustee job and her career in education, Wong said that she intended to step down from the TDSB but not necessarily abandon the field of education. She said she still intended to serve the TDSB “in a bigger capacity” and to support it from Queen’s Park in “different avenues of care and concerns.”

When asked about her immediate future, Wong joked that there would be no breaks for her and she vowed to continue her daily routine of attending local school events and programs. She’ll also continue to maintain the weekly reading program she organizes for kids.

Wong ended her speech by vowing to her supporters that she would always support them.

“Together we will fight for what’s right and what’s just for Scarborough-Agincourt,” Wong said. “You’re now my number 1 priorities at Queen’s Park. You’re concerns are mine. You’re issues are mine. You’re progress is ours. You’re successes are ours.”

After Wong finished her speech, she and Phillips clasped each other’s hand and raised them in the air signifying the start of a new era for this riding.

By Cortney Cook,

Centennial Journalism joint program with U of T

Once the polls had closed Thursday night, Progressive Conservative candidate for Scarborough Centre Carol Williams walked into her campaign office on McCowan Road.

The first words she spoke were,“ I do not want to see any tears.” Listen to her interview here.

Despite the fact she lost her first campaign to Liberal Brad Duguid, and the fact that Dalton McGuinty won for the third time in a row as premier of Ontario, Williams was still met with roaring, and joyous cheers from all her supporters and volunteers.

Williams, 59, was very enthusiastic to be representing the Scarborough Centre area. Her passion for public service comes from her extensive background working in education, and previously as a child and youth worker. She has a masters in educational administration from the University of Toronto, and began her teaching career at St. Thomas Shrine in Scarborough as a special education teacher. She then moved on to become vice-principal of Blessed Mother Teresa Catholic Secondary School, and then principal of St. Brother Andre CHS in Markham. Williams also recently ran for TCDSB trustee, but she did not win.

After being congratulated by Tim Hudak as the PC party’s official candidate for Scarborough Centre back in February, the single-mother from Trinidad stressed that some of her primary goals involved working on relief for families, getting the government focused on the basics, and making private sector job creation a priority.

Williams felt her extensive background in education would be a great asset to her campaign.

“I think one of the key things about being an administrator and being a principal is that you have to represent the concerns of parents, students, and teachers in your community. And you have to make sure the voice of your community is well heard. My key gift here is to listen to my constituents and echo their concerns at the table,” Williams said during an interview before the election.

When focusing on tackling some of the key issues that were at hand, Williams supported Hudak’s plans to create a better Ontario with more jobs, give relief for families from the HST, and relief in tuition fees for Ontario students.
“It’s looking at what’s happening now, and redirecting where there’s waste, keeping what works, and getting rid of what doesn’t,” Williams said.

“Not all problems are solved by throwing money at it. Sometimes you have to look and reorganize some things and re-shift some models a different way,” she added.

The majority of voters felt that Hudak’s plans were not the way to go. The final results of the polls had the Liberals come out on top with 53 seats, the PC party won 37 seats, and the NDP received 17. The Liberals were just one seat shy of a majority government. For the Scarborough Centre riding, Duguid won with 51.3 per cent of votes, Williams came in second with 24.2  per cent  of votes, and NDP finished in third with 21.7 per cent of votes.

For a moment, when it became clear she had lost, there was an air of disappointment in Williams’ campaign office. However, when she walked into the room,  she only had words of optimism for her supporters.

“I put my very best effort forward, and I know we did this all as a collective effort,” Williams told her supporters.

“This was a joyful campaign and we have nothing to be upset about. We will get it next time,” she added.

So, while it may have been a disappointing first-run, Williams had no complaints. More importantly, she enjoyed the experience.

“The best part of it was I have made friends for the rest of my life. And that’s what I’m going to take away from this, the friendships that I have made throughout this campaign,” Williams said after her speech to her supporters.

When asked if she was planning to run again, Williams said she was unsure about her political future. She concluded that she was going to give it some thought and come to a decision after a few weeks of reflection. However, she was still certain that in some way or another, she will be working with Ontario families in the future.

The Green party picked a hip and cozy restaurant in downtown Toronto Thursday to celebrate the election night results. Going by the name of “Veritas”, which is Latin for truth, the location seemed to be an appropriate choice for Robin McKim, one of the many Green party candidates in Toronto’s ridings to experience the moment of truth together: the election night loss.

McKim, 27, the Green party candidate for the Scarborough Southwest riding, already has experience with these kind of moments. It was his second time running for the Green party, but it was his first time in Ontario. He ran in the 2009 provincial election in British Columbia, in a rural riding of Westside-Kelowna. Back then, he was able to secure 8.19 per cent of the vote. This time, he looked at a result of 2.33 per cent and was beaten by the incumbent Liberal candidate Lorenzo Berardinetti who managed to secure 44.09 per cent of the vote. McKim said that the numbers strongly suggested that many voters casted their ballot strategically to deny one of the main parties access to power.

“I was expecting between four and six percent,” McKim said. “This voting system does not allow people who want to vote Green to vote Green.” Listen to interview with McKim here.

He added that strong Green parties usually appear in countries with a voting system using proportional representation.

The party was struck a severe blow at the polls winning only 2.94 per cent of the vote. In the previous election of 2007, the Green party was able to secure eight per cent of the vote. The current numbers bring the party again back to levels of the 2003 Ontario election. Once again, the Greens won no seat. The Green Party of Ontario leader, Mike Schreiner lost to Donna Kenwell of the Liberals in his own riding of Simcoe-Grey.

Amidst this bad news, the party was still able to find some positive rallying points to stay motivated and upbeat. The party was able for the second time to feature a full slate of 107 candidates, one in every riding across Ontario. Also, the party received 50 per cent more donations than in previous elections and was also able to pride itself on a growing volunteer base.

One key component of the Green party’s political strategy was to attempt to influence the bigger mainstream parties to incorporate greener policies into their platform. In that regard, McKim said he believed the Green party had been very successful.

“Nights like these are important. Not that anybody gets elected, but that more votes go the green way,” McKim emphasized. “I think the Liberals have really taken a step forward in leading North America and I credit them with moving ahead with their green initiatives,” acknowledged McKim, referring to the endorsement of the Liberal party by environmental activist David Suzuki during this election. “Whether this comes from our influence or from corporate deals seen as profitable to the province does not concern me as much as that they are being implemented.”

Looking back at his campaign, McKim took away some lessons for the future.

“We wanted to get on top of social media, but we didn’t manage to as much as we would have liked,” McKim said. He also regretted not to have been able to circulate more flyers in the riding.

His Twitter feed as well as his campaign Facebook page were left neglected throughout the campaign. Being a last minute candidate, the preparation for his candidacy was rushed to the extent that the printed flyers were hard to read due to the selected font.

“I cannot say I am very proud of these,” commented McKim, after a campaign stop last month.

Robin McKim signs autographs for an enthusiastic crowd of students during a visit at Warden Public School. (Photo: Nino Meese-Tamuri)

On the bright side, McKim recalled his favourite moment of the campaign: A visit to Warden Public School. A Grade 5 class questioned him on political issues with topics such as “Why did you join the Green party?” and “What is your favourite junk food?”

The goal of the visit was to excite the children about politics and the election process and maybe plant a seed or two for greener voters in the future.

“The kids were incredible, the teacher was incredible and we just had a really good time that day,” McKim recalled. Even though he was the only candidate visiting the class, a mock election held on Oct. 5 placed him a close second with 16 per cent behind the eventual winner, the NDP’s Bruce Budd at 17 per cent. However, a similar mock election of about 170 students following an all-candidates debate at Birchmount Park High School gave McKim a strong 50 per cent win.

Is he going to wait for these young voters to become old enough to support him on the big stage?

“After the first time running in British Columbia, I thought I was probably not going to be doing that again, but now after having done it the second time, I would certainly not be hesitant in the future.”

Some Grade 12 students in Toronto are working and playing sports to maintain a healthy and active lifestyle.

Arriri is a student at Monsignor Percy Johnson Catholic High School, in Rexdale. She tells Centennial Journalism’s Joyce Faluyi  how she is coping.

Listen to the interview here.

Kevin Gaudet, photo by Alicia Ferroro

Kevin Gaudet has come in second behind the Liberal party in the Pickering-Scarborough East riding in Thursday’s provincial election.

Gaudet got a total of 12,660 votes, accounting for 33.2 per cent of the votes in the riding. Tracy MacCharles, the Liberal party candidate beat Gaudet by 5,069 votes. She received 46.6 per cent of the votes.

The celebration was at his campaign office in Pickering. There was free food and an open bar. The food was buffet style with small snacks, including little sandwiches. A lot of people were there to support Gaudet. The decorations were elegant with round tables placed around the room, each with a flower centerpiece. Despite the loss, the atmosphere was very upbeat, with a band performing in the background.

“This isn’t my home but it felt like my home in great part thanks to how you welcomed me in here and I felt I became part of the community,” Gaudet said in a speech after the votes were counted.

If elected, Gaudet, as the former federal and Ontario director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, had pledged to reduce taxes. He said in an interview earlier this month that the tax relief amounts to $3.5 billion dollars over the next four years.

Gaudet, 43, also thanked all of his campaign members and his family, including his wife, Maki, and his three children. They celebrate their wedding anniversary on Friday. Tears came to his eyes when thanking his family.

“I can’t say enough about how great a campaign we all ran,” Gaudet said. (Listen to his speech here.)

“I used to both play high school football and rugby. Then I went on to be a football coach. One of the things we were told was … we need to leave it all out on the field and I am so proud of the work we all did,” he said.

According to the Conservative party’s “Changebook,” they wanted to increase spending on education and health care. The Conservative party also had a jobs plan. They wanted to start a Small Business Bill of Rights to help the relationship between the business owner and government. The plans also included creating more than 200,000 apprenticeship spaces in Ontario. Gaudet has said that the first thing on their list would have been the tax relief on home energy bills.

Gaudet also thinks the pollution at Rouge Beach is a problem that needs to be fixed. In his speech after the election he described a recent conversation with MacCharles ,where he asked her to act on that priority.

“I did suggest to her if she’d steal any of my ideas, the Rouge needs to be cleaned up,” he said.

Gaudet plans to enjoy his anniversary with his wife and does not know what the future holds for him.

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