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Feature Article April 29

Federal Election results

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Reid wins LFL&A as expected, but Conservatives fall short in Ontario

Scott Reid will be the first MP in the Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington riding, defeating Liberal Larry McCormick, who held the Hastings-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington riding for 10 years before riding redistribution this year pitted him against Reid, the incumbent from the old Lanark-Carleton riding.

It was a comfortable victory for Reid, who won over 48% of the vote, receiving about 10,000 more votes than McCormick, who polled just over 31% of the vote.

NDP candidate Ross Sutherland received over 13.5% of the vote, and Green Party candidate John Baranyi hovered around the 5% mark.

Overall there was good and bad news for all the candidates. Scott Reid, who could not be reached by the News late on Election night, had been hoping his party would make a better showing in Ontario, where they took only 23 seats, from 31.5% of the popular vote.

Earlier in the campaign, the Conservatives had been hoping to form a government, and as one of only four experienced MPs from Ontario, Scott Reid stood a chance of becoming a cabinet minister.

For Larry McCormick the defeat was not unexpected.

We knew we were in tough, so I wasnt surprised it turned out the way it did. You always hope, but really I wasnt surprised. Were more disappointed for the volunteers than for ourselves, but they did a great job throughout the campaign, which was entirely volunteer run.

Although disappointed with his personal loss, McCormick said he is relieved at the overall outcome.

I was particularly concerned about economic development in Eastern Ontario and the possibility that all the progress weve made would be lost under the Conservatives, but it looks like that progress will be secure under a Liberal minority government, he said.

Ross Sutherland said he was quite pleased with the results, both locally and nationally. I had hoped for at least 10% of the vote in this riding, and we ended up without about 14% of the vote, which triples the NDP vote from the last election. Im very satisfied with that and think we had a very good local campaign.

Nationally, it looks like we will hold the balance of power, and even though our national percentage dropped in the last few days of the campaign, we made a very strong showing. Im only sad for some personal friends who I thought would win in Toronto ridings.

Green Party candidate John Baranyi made a strong showing at 4.86% per cent, almost a percentage point over the national vote received by the Greens. The 4% of the national vote received by the Greens will give them significant funding under new party financing rules passed by the former Chretien government. The national vote of the Green Party increased by 400% over the previous election in 2000.

For Scott Reid, the campaign was a learning experience, as his position on Official Bilingualism became early fodder for a successful campaign tactic by the Liberals to brand the Conservatives as having radical right wing agendas as far as social programs are concerned.

Reid, whose position on Official Bilingualism is based on research he carried out for a book he wrote on the subject, and is based on a pluralistic notion of what a national language policy should look like, found his party being painted as anti-Quebec as the result of his comments.

Reid said he learned that as party spokesman I must limit my comments to the party position and avoid talking about my own personal positions. After a harried day being chased around Lanark County, Reid did the only thing I could do under the circumstances, and I resigned as bilingualism critic at midnight that night.

Official bilingualism faded as an issue as the campaign progressed but was brought up in the leaders debates, and has returned to the fore in a question of the future direction of Air Canada.

It will be a more careful Scott Reid that returns to Ottawa after this latest political election.

With the participation of the Government of Canada