Poll topper Michael Creed etches out voter history again
CLLR CREED SHUNS SOCIAL MEDIA AND RELIES SOLELY ON “FIVE YEARS OF WORK”
A “PROUD Fine Gael” councillor etched out a slice of electoral history for himself when he topped the poll in the Macroom Electoral area.
In a previous local election, Cllr Michael Creed bagged the highest vote in the entire country with over 4,800 first preference votes and just after 8pm on Saturday night at the count centre at County Hall, he nailed the highest first preference vote of 2,967 which was well above the quota of 2,474.
The smile was wide but even wider on his many supporters’ faces as he was the first past the post in the six-seater constituency.
In an interview with The Corkman he said: “It has been a good day for us here – I don’t think you will win an election in four or five weeks, you win it for the work which you did for the last five years. I am really thrilled and delighted, I really am.”
When asked about his campaign trail, he said that the people at the doors were “very nice” to him and he wanted to thank the people who put their trust in him.
He gushed about his campaign team and said there were 25 people out canvassing with him in all sorts of weather.
“I have to thank my canvassers who went and supported me when I started out on the campaign seven weeks ago. We went out every evening and they stood by me the whole time. They are an amazing bunch of people and I want to truly thank them,” said Cllr Creed.
He also said he wanted to thank all the people that he met and who voted for him. “People at the doors were very nice to me and I want to thank them for that. The one thing that I would say is that the amount of people that are missing when you are out canvassing was huge and I could see in the next number of years that social media will take over from canvassing,” he said.
As people began to take snaps and social media took off, he said with a smile, that he “wasn’t a fan of social media”.
“I don’t engage in it at all or with Facebook or Twitter or any sort of thing but I suppose a lot of the younger candidates do and I think that is the way that they will go in the future,” he said. However, he readily agreed it was here to stay but was quite content to stick to his ways on his trusted road – meeting the people face to face.
“You don’t win seats by promoting yourself on Facebook and Tweeting for five weeks before an election, it’s the five years’ work you do on the ground beforehand,” said Cllr Creed.
“We were out canvassing seven days a week at all hours and I can put that down to the economy doing so well and unemployment being so low, people are out working and are just not at home. For all the people that I did meet, you wouldn’t meet nicer, they were just lovely,” he added.
Asked if he was surprised at the national upswing for the Green Party, he said that in the Macroom constituency there wasn’t a green candidate. He said while he has “no problem” with some of the Green Party’s issues, he does on more of them.
“However, global warming has become a huge issue and we have to do something to rectify that – that is a challenge,” he said.
Cllr Creed equally tipped his hat to his fellow FG candidates who ran, Eileen Lynch, Aine Collins and Ted Lucey.
“We had a divide between the four of us and I have to say this and to be fair, all the four stuck to that divide and so I want to compliment each of the candidates for that,” he said.
He explained that he canvassed very hard in Clondrohid, Carriganima, Ballyvourney, Coolea, Reaniree, Kilnamatrya, Kilmichael, Ballingeary and Inchigeela and knocked on almost every door in that area.
While councillor Creed readily admitted, he wasn’t a fan of Social Media but as he left for his hometown of Macroom he was #outthegapawinner.