By Lee Griffi, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Mike Harris has won re-election as the Member of Provincial Parliament for the riding of Kitchener-Conestoga.
Harris, who garnered 41.5 per cent of the vote, told the Gazette on election night he is looking forward to getting back to work at Queen’s Park.
“I think the most exciting part for me is being able to continue doing the good work we have been doing for the last seven years into things like the new hospital in Waterloo Region, things like moving forward with Highway 7 connecting the region with Guelph and getting the two-way, all-day GO Train service.”
Harris said he wants to see continued investment into the rural areas of the riding, including Wilmot and Wellesley.
“We have the new Wellesley Recreation Centre. I was able to work with the township and the province to acquire roughly half the funding for the project.”
The facility is home to the Wellesley Applejacks Provincial Junior Hockey League (PJHL) team, Community Care Concepts and the Wellesley Community Care Centre.
“We have seen some renewal in infrastructure projects in New Hamburg, in particular, at the community centre. I think a lot of the focus at this point, if we are talking shiny and new, would be working with our municipalities to ensure we are putting our best foot forward to help with infrastructure needs and costs.”
Harris added those needs include water, wastewater and other major, new projects along with maintaining current infrastructure.
Liberal candidate Joe Gowing came second in the race with 29.5 per cent support of voters. While Gowing admitted he would have rather won than come in second, the result is what he and his team had predicted.
“We were hoping Mike would lose a bit more of his support, but we are ecstatic. We knew we were in second the whole time. It was a good showing and the results were exactly what we thought from day one.”
Gowing explained the PCs still have a solid base in rural Ontario, including Kitchener-Conestoga.
“I have talked to many farmers, even the ones potentially losing their land, they said, ‘Sorry, we have to vote for the Conservatives as their family has done it for years.’ The problem is the PCs are not for the farmers any more.”
The Kitchener resident told his supporters on election night he wasn’t done yet and added the Liberals and NDP need to come up with a plan to work together.
“I know Mike is not helping anyone in our riding. I know he’s not the right representative and I know I am. I have proven that and the numbers show it. People trust me and I am going to push my party to have talks with the NDP and see what we can do on that front.”
The NDPs and Liberals combined took 48 per cent of the riding, more than enough to win the seat. He explained vote-splitting between the two led to his second-place finish.
“I don’t know what that looks like, but we need to start having the talks.”
Jodi Szimanski took 18.5 per cent of the vote as the New Democratic Party candidate and said despite her third-place finish, the experience was a memorable one.
“I honestly had a tonne of fun. The ability to meet so many people in the riding and get to know them and their issues is something worth doing again and fighting for.”
She added the party was able to make some gains along with keeping official opposition status.
“We made some huge headway in areas we have never made headway before. We raised more money than we have in this riding’s history. I think it was just a little bit of that unknown and people were really focused on strategic voting which we continue to see doesn’t work.”
Szimanski explained electoral reform is needed to cut through people’s misconceptions on voting day.
“People post polls that aren’t actually polls but projections and it freaks people out. They vote with whoever is yelling the loudest about predictions and it’s not something I was willing to put out there because it isn’t actual poll data.”
The NDPs attempted to make the Region of Waterloo’s land acquisition the riding’s number-one issue, something the Wellesley resident said worked.
“People in the other townships were saying if it can happen in Wilmot, it can happen anywhere and there are a lot of farms here. When talking to people in Kitchener, what they don’t like is the secrecy and the lying from the Conservative party.”
Brayden Wagenaar from the Green Party earned 5.5 per cent of the vote, the New Blue Party’s candidate and leader Jim Karahalios brought in 2.8 per cent while Patrick Doucette brought in 2.2 per cent.
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