Tassi returning to Ottawa
Liberal incumbent wins easily in Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas
Liberal incumbent Filomena Tassi will return to Ottawa after sailing to a comfortable victory in Hamilton West-Ancaster Dundas.
“It’s an honour and a privilege to serve in this capacity and I’m really grateful to the team that worked so hard,” Tassi said before joining her campaign party at the Ancaster Mill late Monday.
With 246 of 251 polls reported, Tassi had 25,379 votes — or nearly 44 per cent — beating her nearest rival, Conservative Bert Laranjo, by 8,610 votes.
During this short campaign, the labour minister focused on the “billions” in funding that her Liberal government has flowed to Hamilton.
That includes the $1.7 billion the federal government committed to the city’s renewed LRT project, $400 million for ArcelorMittal Dofasco to help it transition to “green” steelmaking, and millions for McMaster University and Mohawk College.
“The investments the federal Liberal government has made into Hamilton are unprecedented. Since 2015, it’s billions of dollars,” Tassi said.
But during the campaign, opponents Laranjo and New Democrat Roberto Henriquez took aim at Tassi for the Liberals’ string of “broken promises” over the past six years.
Those included ongoing boil-water advisories on First Nations, an abandoned pledge for electoral reform and failing to balance the budget in the first term of Parliament.
Laranjo, a nurse, and Henriquez, a lawyer, both took Tassi to task for the Liberals’ decision to plunge Canadians into a $600-million snap election during the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tassi responded that the electorate had to weigh in to give government a “mandate” during the pandemic.
“This was a time when we needed to go to Canadians and say, ‘Did we get it right through COVID? And is our plan moving forward the right plan?’ ”
The Liberal and Conservative plans “are very different,” she added, noting diverging approaches to the environment, child care and vaccine passports.
Victoria Galea ran for the Greens and Dean Woods carried the People’s Party of Canada banner.
In Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas, 4,856 mail-in ballots were requested. Election officials expected to start counting those votes Tuesday.
Tassi, a lawyer and former Catholic school board trustee, has carried the Liberal banner in the riding that includes McMaster University since it made its debut in the 2015 election.
Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas had been part of Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale, which was held by Conservative MP David Sweet. That year, the now-outgoing MP shifted to Flamborough-Glanbrook.
Tassi’s trajectory as a Liberal MP has seen her rise from backbencher status to minister for seniors in 2018 before becoming minister of labour — a hefty portfolio amid the pandemic’s workforce disruptions.