Poilievre remains lone local Conservative
Rematch of 2015 clash between Tory, Liberal candidates another close race
Supporters of Carleton Conservative incumbent Pierre Poilievre and Liberal challenger Chris Rodgers gathered at two separate bars only a block apart in Manotick on Monday night.
Half an hour after the polls closed, Poilievre’s supporters in the Manotick Legion cheered as their candidate’s name was posted on a big screen.
Neither Poilievre nor Rodgers was expected to appear until later in the evening in what looked to be a tight race as early results trickled in.
This is Poilievre’s sixth election. He is 40 years old, but already a seasoned political veteran with 15 years as an MP under his belt.
He won his first election in 2004 in the riding of Nepean-Carleton, defeating the incumbent Liberal David Pratt, who was minister of national defence in Jean Chrétien’s cabinet, by 3,736 votes. Poilievre served in Stephen Harper’s government as minister of state for democratic reform from 2013 to 2015 and minister of employment and social development in 2015.
The federal riding of Carleton is one of the oldest in Canada, but was redistributed in 2012 to include parts of Nepean-Carleton, Carleton-Mississippi Mills and a small portion of Ottawa South.
Poilievre fought a hard-won battle in the 2015 election, beating Rodgers by about 2,000 votes and with 47 per cent of the vote to Rodger’s 44 per cent.
He was up against Rodgers again in this election, but this time Justin Trudeau was tarnished. Poilievre kept the Liberals’ feet to the fire over the SNC-Lavalin scandal.
Count local infrastructure and the rising cost of living among Poilievre’s local priorities. But he also had his record to draw on in the battle for Carleton. Poilievre has pointed to opposing a plan to locate the new Civic Hospital at Tunney’s Pasture and fighting to get federal funding for Stage 2 of LRT among his accomplishments. He pledged to continue to fight for local infrastructure needs of the riding.
Rodgers listed affordability, infrastructure and community services among the concerns he has heard most often in the riding and said if he won he would work to get the LRT extended to Stittsville as soon as possible and campaign to get a community centre in Findlay Creek or Riverside South.
Poilievre is known for his aggressive and unapologetic partisan approach to politics and it appeared he didn’t take it for granted that he would cruise to victory this time around. He came out swinging early in the election, blasting Trudeau’s minister of environment and climate change Catherine McKenna for opening the door to carbon tax increases.
“Hold onto your wallet,” Poilievre tweeted after the Liberals proposed running deficits over the next four years.
Poilievre scrapped with local Liberals again last week after they held a press conference warning there would be public service cuts if Andrew Scheer won this election. Poilievre shot back that the Tories’ plan would protect the current number of public service jobs over the next five years and added that the Liberals were trying to distract from their “new tax expenditure and government spending review” projected to save $10 billion over four years. The Liberals would pay for it with job cuts and tax hikes, Poilievre argued.
Carleton voters had a lot of choice in this election. Other candidates included the NDP’s Kevin Hua; the Green party’s Gordon Kubanek and Alain Musende of the People’s Party of Canada.