Posted by Kincardine News on 6/29/2004, 1:33 pm, in reply to "Carroll wins Barrie"
Steckle wins fourth term
Huron-Bruce voters unanimously returned Paul Steckle to Ottawa on Monday for an unprecedented fourth term.
With 227 of a possible 229 polls reporting in the early hours of Tuesday it was Steckle, the Liberal incumbent, finishing with 25,311 votes just less than 50 per cent while Conservative candidate Barb Fisher finished with 15,669 votes. New Democratic Party candidate Grant Robertson finished third with 6,644 votes.
Green Party candidate Dave Vasey was fourth with 1,501 votes followed by Christian Heritage Party candidate Dave Joslin with 950. Marijuana Party candidate Glen Smith was sixth with 635 votes. Elections Canada reported a voter turnout of 66 per cent with 50,710 of 76,813 residents casting a ballot.
At 10:21 p.m. less than an hour after the polls closed Sacred Heart Church exploded in applause when Steckle was declared the winner after his vote total jumped to 2,080 from 1,249. Two minutes later the CBC declared a Liberal minority government.
"I want to first say thank you to the people of Huron-Bruce for your restored confidence in me," Steckle said during his victory celebration. "While the numbers indicate that we may be headed for a minority government my representation is not going to be diminished by what happens across the country.
"I've always said the people of Huron-Bruce come first even though the positions as you well know have not always been popular with the government I serve. I've always done that and I will continue to do that."
Steckle, surrounded by family, friends and party supporters, said this election, more than any of his previous three, was a hard fight given negative voter opinion throughout the campaign.
"They were angry at the man who leads this party and who is the prime minister of this country for whatever reasons one can only surmise," Steckle said. "This man has been a good prime minister the short time he's been there and he certainly did a great job in terms of being the finance minister of this country.
"I believe the people who handled his campaign and basically managed him throughout this campaign did a lousy job. That's not what some people would want me to say but I'm going to begin this mandate by calling it the way it is."
Steckle said one of his main priorities would be to seek re-election as chair of the government's standing committee on agriculture where he would reopen the case against Canadian meat packers in the wake of the BSE crisis.
"That is going to be one of the first things I'll do given the circumstances with the border still being closed," Steckle said.
Health care also remains a top priority for Steckle, who pointed to a first ministers meeting with the prime minister in late July or early August.
"I look forward to sort of finding resolve in these (issues) because certainly we in rural Canada here in Huron and Bruce particularly know what it is to have doctor shortages," Steckle said. "We need to find ways to bring in more doctors to our rural communities and that is certainly one of my priorities."
Steckle said he would also make the disabled a priority with plans to work with Huron-Bruce MPP Carol Mitchell and the provincial government in order to find solutions to assimilate the disabled in our society.
In Kincardine, Fisher said she believes the young age of her party combined with the fact she faced an incumbent with three terms behind him contributed to her defeat.
"Incumbents are always tough to beat," she said from her home on Monday where she watched the results with her family. "Paul (Steckle) runs his campaign on the basis that he's a maverick and some people like that and no doubt you have to stand up for what you believe in. This time that's what the voters of Huron-Bruce chose."
The fact that her newly combined party (the former Alliance and Progressive Conservative parties merged earlier this year) found itself facing a federal election so soon after its inception was another factor, Fisher believes.
"The general public didn't have a lot of time to get to know the party or our leader before we were facing an election," she said.
Fisher said as recently as a week ago there were still a lot of undecided voters "who decided to carry on with what they know rather than with someone new." Fisher doesn't believe her association with the former provincial Progressive Conservative government of Mike Harris (when she served as Bruce MPP from 1995-1999) was a negative factor for her in Huron-Bruce.
"At least that's not what the voters were telling me," Fisher said of her door-to-door campaign. With a Liberal minority government on the horizon and the balance of power falling to the Bloc Quebecois, Fisher anticipates there will be another election sooner rather than later and she isn't counting herself out of running yet.
"I never say never," Fisher said.
Although she was disappointed with the results, Fisher had nothing but praise for her campaign workers and supporters.
"It was a great campaign and one of the biggest I've ever been involved with," she said. "I'm extremely proud of the work everyone did on my behalf."
Fisher left for Goderich around 11 p.m. on Monday where she joined campaign workers at the Candlelight Restaurant in Goderich.
Although the sombre mood at the restaurant was to be expected, the party livened up once Fisher arrived just before midnight.
She was greeted by a thunderous ovation as the 33-year political veteran addressed her family, friends and campaign supporters.
"It's not much fun to be on the losing side of anything," Fisher said in her concession speech. "But, I think it takes a special spunk to stand out and I think we made sure everyone took notice that we had a huge impact on the numbers this time."
In continuing with her positive outlook on a disappointing loss, Fisher said she has high hopes that her party would remain a force in the Huron-Bruce riding.
"We are a strong, united Conservative party in this riding," Fisher said. "(Someday) this riding will be ours."
This was the 19th campaign the former municipal and provincial politician has been involved with as either a candidate or organizer. When asked once again about her future endeavours, Fisher once again exhibited loyalty to her party.
"I will always be a Conservative," she said. "So I'll always be involved."
Robertson, who watched the local and national election results with family and party supporters at the Lucknow Legion, congratulated all Huron-Bruce candidates, especially Steckle.
"I wish Paul well," Robertson said. "I hope he will tackle the issues facing farmers in Huron and Bruce and I will be there to help him if needed."
Robertson said he was pleased to see the NDP increase their seats nationally as they work to hold the Liberals to their many campaign promises.
"We'll have a central voice in Parliament," he said.
Robertson said he was surprised by the low number of voters locally.
"I think we have been victims of strategic voting," Robertson said. "It's disappointing that there are people that don't vote for something.
"Hopefully out of this election we'll be able to see something come out of a minority government."
Robertson said he was not overly disappointed by the NDP's third place finish in local poll results adding he may return to be part of the Huron-Bruce election process in the future.
"I am a little disappointed with the election results but I'm positive about the future," Robertson said. "Increasing the popular vote was my main goal and we achieved it.
"I had lots of volunteers and I'm thankful for their help and to the party's supporters."
Huron Federation of Agriculture president Neil Vincent, who arrived in Wingham to congratulate his long-time friend, called Steckle's re-election good news for the farming community.
"When Paul says he's going after something then you can take him at his word that he's going after it," Vincent said. "I guess he can be dogged determination when he sets his mind to do something."
Steckle, first elected in 1993 when he defeated incumbent Progressive Conservative candidate Murray Cardiff, made history on Monday when he was re-elected to a fourth term. He is the first Huron-Bruce MP to serve four terms (Cardiff served three terms from 1980-1993).
The federal election also marked the eighth campaign for Steckle including his time in municipal politics.
Following his speech Steckle told members of the media that he could forsee some sort of Liberal-NDP coalition or at least a working relationship in order to make things work in Parliament.
"Whoever we happen to work with I think it can be made to work," Steckle said. "Perhaps we need to see how this can work since its been 25 years since we tried this."
Nationally the Liberals finished with 36.8 per cent of the popular vote (about 136 seats) while the Conservative Party finished with 29.6 per cent of the popular vote (about 97 seats). The Bloc Quebecois was third with 12.5 per cent of popular vote (about 54 seats) followed by the New Democratic Party with 15.6 per cent of popular vote (about 20 seats).
It was a close contest, battled riding to riding, across the 308 up for grabs in this election. When Martin called the election on May 23 there were 301 seats, with the Liberals having 168, the Conservatives 72, the Bloc 33 and the NDP 14. There were 10 independents and four vacancies. More than 1.2 million people showed up at advance polls set up from June 18 to 21 a 60 per cent increase over the 775,000 who voted in advance in 2000.
About 12 million votes were needed on Monday to put this election¹s turnout higher than the dismal 2000 figure.
