By Angelica Ingram
Cheers were erupting throughout the night around Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock Liberal candidate David Marquis however the political hopeful remained cautiously quiet.
As federal election results rolled in across the bottom of the television at the Days Inn in Lindsay on Oct. 19 there was a strange mix of emotions amongst those who had worked so hard to bring change to the riding.
Receiving 31.7 per cent of the riding’s vote second to Conservative candidate Jamie Schmale Marquis was disappointed by how the local result didn’t reflect what happened across the country.
“Obviously not the results we were hoping for in Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock” he said. “Now clearly the people here were moving in a different direction than the rest of Canada. It was obvious to me that Canadians wanted a change. The policies that the Liberal government were putting forward were well accepted by most of this country and I don’t really understand why that didn’t materialize here.”
Marquis said he respects the decision made by the people of HKLB and is unsure of what his political future holds.
“We’re clearly four years out now because of a majority government. I’ll have to reevaluate in four years” he said.
A small business owner and married father of five Marquis 61 has a long-standing love of politics having served on municipal council in Brock for 16 years. He isn’t ready to give up on the local Liberal fight just yet.
“I’ll be working with the local riding association to strengthen what we have here and to prepare ourselves for the next federal election” said Marquis.
Supporters were surrounding Marquis all night with messages of encouragement for the hard fought campaign the first-time candidate had run.
“I had a great team out there” he said. “No candidate can run a good campaign without a great team. We did run a good campaign. Our numbers were encouraging … we finished well at least even if we didn’t win the seat.”
The mood throughout the evening continued to climb as Liberal momentum grew across the country and the party that went from third place in the House of Commons nabbed a majority government.
Songs such as For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow were filling the election party throughout the night along with hugs hand shakes and more to show support for Marquis and his efforts.
Media liaison for the campaign Joannie Ransberry was both excited and emotional about the results she was seeing across the country even if it was a different story for the local candidate.
“On the national scale I’m absolutely elated” she said adding she predicted a majority Liberal government but thought they would only win by three seats.
In the end the Liberal party took 184 seats much more than the 170 needed to form a majority.
Ransberry believed the local results reflected a strong Conservative base in the riding.
“I’m disappointed David didn’t win he worked hard we all did” she said. “He’s a real Liberal not an opportunist.”
Marquis was quick to shrug off the notion that HKLB has entrenched Conservative roots that will never change pointing to past Liberal representatives both provincially and federally.
“I guess the conditions have to be right but you know quite frankly I don’t know why they weren’t right this time when the rest of the country was moving in a totally different direction” he said.