Candidate Wins Second Straight Election As Tories Retain Power With Strong Majority Win
Peterborough – To chants of “four more years” a beaming Dave Smith accepted congratulations from his supporters as the Progresive Conservative rode a blue wave of Tory dominance in the June 2 provincial election. It was a resounding win for the now two-time MPP representing the riding of Peterborough-Kawartha.
Smith thanked his campaign team and other supporters as about a hundred of them gathered at the Peterborough Golf and Country Club to watch the results come in and celebrate Smith’s and the party’s victory.
Smith told Kawartha 411 that the real work for the new government starts now. He added it was Premier Doug Ford’s handling of the global pandemic that set the stage for the overwhelming victory.
“All throughout COVID the focus has been and continues to be on people’s health and well being. It resonated with people. We were always following the best advice of the doctors. Most people recognized that,” Smith said. “Even when the storm hit, so many people lost the contents of their freezers. I made calls, people stepped up. People recognized that I was here in the community trying to solve the challenges that we faced.”
Smith added that the goal is to win the election and then represent the people of the riding. He said he is humbled and grateful for the support he received in order to do that for a second term. Smith said the badly beaten Liberals, under Steven Del Duca, who lost his seat and resigned as party leader, were in trouble long before this election campaign.
“It actually started more than four years ago. The Liberals were not listening to what the people of Ontario were saying. They weren’t doing things the people of Ontario needed or wanted,” Smith said. “Kathleen Wynne stepped down. Del Duca was elected leader but they never really ever got back to the point where they were actually listening to people. That was reflected in this election.”
Smith suggested he expects to return to Queen’s Park as the parliamentary assistant to the minister of energy, mines and northern development as well as the minister of Indigenous affairs.
He also revealed publicly for the first time that police are investigating after his truck was ‘tampered’ with during the election campaign.
“My vehicle was off the road for about four days. All I can say is that there is about $3,000 worth of damage. I didn’t mention it previously because I didn’t want someone to claim a feather in their cap,” Smith said. “It’s an open investigation right now so I can’t get into what actually was done but suffice to say my vehicle was tampered with.”
Meanwhile, the surprise result of the riding may have been the strong showing of the runner up to Smith – Liberal Greg Dempsey. He finished with seven per cent more of the vote than did his decimated party overall.
“I’m incredibly proud of our team and how we did. We ran well ahead of the party which I think is a real accomplishment,” Dempsey said. “But I am of course really disappointed. I think it’s going to be a hard four years. It’s going to be tough for nurses and teachers and marginalized people. There is work to do but I think in four years we are going to be able to send a really positive message about what our community is.”
Elections Ontario’s final numbers showed Smith with 20,188 votes or 35.8 per cent of ballots cast. Dempsey garnered 30.1 per cent, while third place finisher – the NDP’s Jen Deck had 21.4 percent. The Ontario Party’s Tom Marazzo won 3.8 per cent of the vote. Green Party candidate Robert Gibson had 3.7 per cent and the New Blue Party’s Rebecca Quinnell finished with 2.1 per cent.
