Simard’s Liberal campaign gathered at the Village Hotel Restaurant in Embrun Thursday night to wait for the election results in earnest. Her team and supporters remained hopeful throughout the night despite a strong initial lead from Sarrazin, but in the end she couldn’t overtake him.
«I feel proud of the campaign that we ran,» said Simard. «It was a clean and professional campaign with incredible volunteers. We gave everything that we had, I have everything that I had, in the last four years but in the last eight weeks especially.»
Simard said she wasn’t disappointed with her loss, but she was disappointed with the very low voter turnout.
«If you look at what’s going on in the world in Ukraine and in other countries, people die for what we have,» she said. «And we’re not using it.»
When asked, Simard said she wouldn’t have done anything different.
«We had the best people, we had the best platform,» she said. «I think we really gave it our all. Of course we’re gonna debrief for the campaign, but if you look at the overall results for the Liberal party, we did very well in this riding.»
To Sarrazin, she said that she thinks that the toxicity needs to be taken out of campaigns and the work environment and politics in general.
«It’s really important to treat each other with respect,» she said. «I think (the Progressive Conservatives) need to stop spreading disinformation and dividing people.»
The Progressive Conservatives under Doug Ford won themselves a second majority government. Ford’s reelection in his riding Etobicoke-North was confirmed within half an hour after the polls closed at 9:30 p.m. NDP leader Andrea Horwath also won reelection and will continue as leader of the Opposition in the new government. Green Party leader Mike Schreiner also won his seat. Liberal leader Steven Del Duca lost his riding of Vaughan-Woodbridge by more than 3700 votes for a 19.6-per margin.
