It was a landslide victory for incumbent Perth-Wellington MP Gary Schellenberger Tuesday night as he pulled in 20,789 of the 43,124 votes cast here.
Though the affair in the Stratford Best Western appeared subdued at first, spirits quickly changed with predictions of a Conservative minority. Early on, it seemed reporters almost outnumbered supporters, but that quickly changed as the night progressed.
Schellenberger said his goal early on, was to win the Perth-Wellington riding – not the entire country. He said this election marked the sixth time he has put his name on the ballot and he has been successful at the last four elections.
“When you’ve been elected four times over the past five years, you feel you’ve done something the electorate is pleased with.”
He thanked his opponents, saying that in itself was a measure of a strong democratic process. “They ran strong campaigns and kept me on my toes. Tonight, I am aware that not everyone in Perth-Wellington voted for me.
“I was elected to be the MP for all the people of Perth-Wellington, not just the parts of the riding that voted for me.”
As for the results Tuesday night, Schellenberger said he is “relieved and gratified.”
“When you’re in that many elections and the people have the confidence in you that you’re doing a good service, it makes you feel good.”
Schellenberger said he’s accomplished a lot in the past five years, and this gives him the opportunity to do more.
When asked whether this election was needed, Schellenberger said it was very much needed.
“If it did one thing, it got rid of some of the people that caused a lot of grief in the house in the last parliament."
As chairman of the standing committee on Canadian heritage, he considered it disgraceful that the committee was able to do no business “because of the politics that were being played by the opposition.”
He said that in the 38th parliament when he was a member of the opposition in a minority government situation, he worked very hard with the government to make sure things got done.
“Tonight is a great night for Perth-Wellington and a great night for Canada.”
“This campaign has been a tough one, we knew that it was going to be a fight, right to the end.
“From day one, we brought to the people of Perth-Wellington our message of lower taxes, strong leadership and economic management”
“There’s no denying that we are entering into some tough economic times, but thanks to the past two-and-a-half years, there are silver linings appearing on the horizon already.
Last month, the Canadian economy created record numbers of jobs and Canadian banks remain strong.
“Tonight, by voting for Conservatives, Canadians have opted for more strong leadership, more reduction in the tax burden, and more prudent economic management.”
Sandra Gardiner
Liberal candidate Sandra Gardiner was runner up, with 10,225 votes – nearly one quarter of the votes cast within Perth-Wellington.
Gardiner considered it an “amazing campaign” and was impressed with the number of individuals coming in to the office and the great volunteers helping the campaign.
“We couldn’t have had a better campaign,” she said.
Gardiner said the main issue was all about the economy. That came more into focus last week with global events, but she said that locally agriculture has been hit hard. Farm operations are facing huge costs and the area has lost a tremendous amount of industry.
She believes the focus of the new government should be the economy and stabilizing the impact of area job losses.
Two key areas, she offered, would be investing in industry and attracting more business to Canada.
Kerry McManus
In Perth-Wellington, many of the campaign offices or gathering spots waiting for elections results were within a three-block area of downtown Stratford and the campaign gathering for NDP candidate Kerry McManus was no exception.
At 7,324 votes, her campaign earned 17% of the popular vote.
“It has been a really great campaign. It’s not every day that you get to talk to people you don’t know, and people you do know about issues that are really important and I really appreciated the opportunity to speak with them about poverty, about the environment, about the economy, about where we’re going with jobs.”
She added that she also had a really strong team in the process.
McManus saw the issues as having changed during the campaign.
At the beginning it was the environment, but then with what was happening globally, the economy and jobs increasingly became the focus.
She suggested the main focus of whoever is elected is to constantly listen to the voters of Perth-Wellington and to represent the needs of the riding, and looking at sustainability of the economy , environment and social programs and achieving a balance.
