Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry got a fresh coat of blue Monday night as Conservative incumbent Eric Duncan piled up another landslide victory.
Neither Duncan’s victory nor its size was a surprise. Even Liberals, in their hearts, knew the campaign was doomed to fail in an election most of us didn’t want.
To borrow a sports adage, the outgunned Denis Moquin team came into the game playing for pride.
Duncan, elected to his first term in 2019, has picked up where his predecessor Super Guy Lauzon left off. He personifies the adage that all politics is local. No question he attracted a big chunk of soft Liberal votes and even a handful of die-hards.
The last time the local Liberals tasted victory was Bob Kilger’s 2000 win, but the writing was on the wall. The Conservative vote was split between Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservatives. Combined, they had 400 more votes than Kilger. In 2004 a marriage of the two parties produced a solid Conservative victory and ever since it has been clear sailing.
At last look (when this was being written early Tuesday morning), CTV News had Duncan with 28,101 votes (55.5%). Moquin was far back with 11,886 (23.5%).
If those numbers hold, Duncan did better than in 2019 when he garnered 53.9%, while the Liberal percentage dipped to 23.5% from 25.63%.
Nobody wants to lose but for People’s Party of Canada (PPC) candidate David Amber his 3,874 votes – 7.7% – was a “victory”. It was a big leap from 1,168 votes in 2019, which translated into just 3.96%. Until his candidacy was announced, few in the riding had heard of him. He was just a name on the ballot.
Next up will be a provincial election and Jim McDonell’s team has to be feeling good about Monday night’s results that showed the Conservative vote remains strong in SDSG.
The buzz in Liberal circles is the local provincial association has lined up a “cracker jack” candidate they believe can take down McDonell.
Looking at Monday night’s disastrous results, for the Liberals, I say bonne chance.
HERE AND THERE I paid $15,000 for my first house (back in the other century) and carried a $13,000 mortgage at 6 1/2 per cent. I was making $10,000 a year and the lady at the bank, pointing out that it was “big responsibility” for somebody with a young family, asked if I thought I could handle the payments and property taxes? … Remember when a price increase was called a price increase? I just got an e-mail from my internet provider telling me all the wonderful things they have done to speed up my internet. There was no mention of a “price increase”. However, there would be a “price adjustment” of $3.50 a month. … I’m still waiting for my friends talking up electric vehicles to buy one. … Just wondering: Do they still give out a pillow when a Canadian senator is sworn in? … Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, poster girl for the ultra-left, showed up at a $35,000-a-plate fundraiser in New York City wearing an expensive outfit that carried the message “Tax the Rich”. Rather than drive to the event from her swank D.C. townhouse in her (very) expensive Tesla, she arrived by limo. … Questions not ask of the Prime Minister on the campaign trail: How has the spike in grocery prices affected the Trudeau household and what did it cost you the last time you filled up at the service station?
THIS AND THAT Note to S. Singh, leader of the NDP who spent the last month flying around the country in a fuel-guzzling jet while delivering his anti-fossil fuel (gas and oil) message: Just wondering what unions represent the renewable energy sector(s)? You know, wind turbines and solar panels. … Note to Green Party: There is nothing green about generic campaign signs plastered on the side of roads. … Good trivia question before Monday’s vote: Name the Green Party, People’s Party of Canada and NDP candidates in Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry? They weren’t exactly household names.
THIS MONTH IN 1938 – New York Central Railroad said it planned to discontinue train service between Cornwall and Helena, N.Y. The line had service from Cornwall to Ottawa with stops in places like Black River, Harrison’s Corners, Northfield, Newington, Finch, Crysler and Embrun. The Cornwall station was on the north side of Second Street West, just east of Hoople Avenue. … Lionel Chevrier, MP for Stormont, laid the cornerstone for the new Cornwall Armoury. A copper box containing various regimental memorabilia and documents was placed in a time vault beneath the corner stone. … City council was studying the possibility of incorporating a three-block section of Cornwall Township that included the armoury, Athletic Grounds and General Hospital. … Royal Lunch on Montreal Road was fined $25 for having three slot machines. Police were ordered to destroy the machines. … Cornwall Seniors defeated Quebec City 14-10 at the Montreal Forum to win the Quebec Senior Lacrosse League title. … St. Pat’s of Ottawa defeated Cornwall Collegiate 22-0 in the first football game played under the lights at the Athletic Grounds. … Fourteen downtown stores were closed for the Jewish Holy Days. … Cornwall Collegiate and Vocational School board voted to introduce a French course as part of the school’s curriculum. The course was requested by the Cornwall chapter of the St. Jean Baptiste Society. … The largest Labour Day parade in local history took place with 2,500 marchers and dozens of floats. The parade stretched two miles. It finished with a field day and picnic at St. Lawrence Park. … Stormont Electric Light and Power Co. had a new telephone number. Not hard to remember – 2000. …. CN offered a Cornwall-Montreal round-trip ticket for $1.70
TRIVIA This former Cornwall Royals’ star player had at least 20-goal seasons with six different National Hockey League teams. The feat is second to Bill Guerin who had 20-goal-plus seasons with seven different teams.
TRIVIA ANSWER If ever there was a friendly election battle it was the 1974 Stormont federal election which saw Cornwall Mayor Ed Lumley running against former Ontario cabinet minister Fern Guindon who had given up his safe provincial seat to run for the Conservatives in the federal election. The federal seat had been held by Lucien Lamoureux, the Independent Speaker of the House. Lumley won and Guindon retired from politics.
QUOTED – “I wonder what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the U.S. Congress.” – Ronald Reagan
