Flamborough-Glanbrook stays blue with Muys win
Dan Muys spent years working behind the scenes on political campaigns — now he’s the face of a winning one.
The first-time Conservative candidate narrowly came out on top in what proved to be a two-way race with Liberal Vito Sgro to represent Flamborough-Glanbrook in Parliament.
Muys, a communications specialist, claimed 40.5 per cent of the vote with 173 of 174 polls reporting and as many as 2,506 mail-in ballots yet to be counted.
“It’s been an exciting night. I’ve felt optimistic from the getgo, lots of positive signs and signals,” said Muys, who watched the election results pour in alongside staff and family at a venue on Highway 5.
“I’ve heard encouragement all day.”
The rural riding was considered a toss-up when longtime Conservative incumbent David Sweet — for whom Muys served as chief of staff — decided not to seek re-election. Sweet announced his intentions to retire from federal politics after he received criticism for pandemic comments and travel.
Muys called the experience of running for office “different,” but not entirely unfamiliar.
“It’s certainly different compared to my other, 30-someodd years involved in politics,” said a chuckling Muys, who grew up on a small farm in Copetown.
“But my team are all people I’ve worked with in the past, so that part of the campaign is the same, but it’s different to be the public face. And I look forward to that.”
The 50-year-old briefly trailed Sgro as the results began to trickle in, but then surged ahead to take a comfortable lead.
Sgro, 56, finished with 35.3 per cent of the vote. The former Hamilton mayoral candidate took the loss in stride and congratulated Muys in an interview with The Spectator.
“I had a fantastic campaign team, one of the best I’ve worked with,” Sgro said Tuesday morning. “We contacted 53,000 household either by knocking on doors or phone calls, (but) it just wasn’t meant to be and that’s politics. You smile, get up the next day and away you go.”
Sgro said he was surprised by what his campaign considered a lower-than-expected voter turnout.
As of noon Tuesday, 5,198 fewer people had voted in the riding compared to the 2019 election — but that number could change as mail-in ballots are counted.
“The first thing that struck me is there was a lot of people from last time who didn’t vote this time,” said Sgro. “But I don’t know what caused that, whether it was COVID or the (snap) election.”
Geographically, Flamborough-Glanbrook is more than three times the size of Hamilton’s other four ridings combined.
The riding contains virtually all of the city’s rural area as well as two of the city’s fastest growing suburban communities, Binbrook and Waterdown.