Hampton sweeps to victory here

With family members at his side and tears welling in his eyes, newly re-elected MPP Howard Hampton stood in front of a crowd of supporters at La Place Rendez-Vous here last night and thanked them for their devotion.
And though an atmosphere of success floated around the room mixed with the haze generated by smoke-effect machines as the provincial NDP leader celebrated his decisive win in Kenora-Rainy River, the tears in his eyes also represented the pain in watching his party stumble at the finish line.
Hampton received 14,441 votes (60.1 percent), compared to 6,274 for Liberal candidate Geoff McClain, 3,027 for PC challenger Cathe Hoszowski, and 281 for Green Party candidate Dan King— making it one of Hampton’s largest margins of victory in his 16 years as an MPP.
“Thank you,” Hampton said those on hand. “I appreciate the incredible support.
His victory was punctuated by winning nearly every poll in Kenora—the one place he had difficulty in 1999 when he was up against Liberal incumbent Frank Miclash.
“I think part of it was the issues that we raised,” Hampton said of his sweep of Kenora. “People [there] got a chance to see me work over the last four years.
People got to know me and got to like me.” Provincially, Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty will become the 24th premier of Ontario, winning 72 of the 103 seats at Queen’s Park in a landslide victory.
The Tories retained just 24 seats.
But despite just under 15 percent of the popular vote in the province, Hampton’s party lost two seats— dropping them to seven and losing official party status.
“This was absolutely the worstcase scenario,” Hampton said of losing official party status after predicting in the late stages of the campaign that the NDP would, at minimum, form the official opposition and possibly win up to 30 seats.
“We’ve said [all along] Ontario needs proportional representation,” a frustrated Hampton said of the setback.
“We may have taken a hit in numbers,” he continued, “but our ability to rally around the issues and portray Ontario values [won’t change].” In losing official party status, the NDP leader will lose valued time within the legislature to challenge the government and make sure NDP ideals are on the forefront.
“It presents a challenge,” Hampton conceded. “[But] we’re used to dealing with challenges.
We’ll have to be more creative.” “I’m excited about what’s happened across Ontario, that we have an Ontario Liberal majority government,” McClain said from his campaign headquarters in Kenora.
“[I’m excited] that people across the province, they chose change.
“Of course, I’m disappointed that here in the Kenora-Rainy River riding that people did not chose to elect a Liberal member,” he added.
“I’m very pleased with our showing, to [nearly] exceed 30 percent of the vote, but I really have to wonder now what Howard’s going to be doing.
“I expect he’s going to have to consider his future and his options if they weren’t able to achieve party status.”
That was the question on everybody’s mind here last night. Would Hampton stay on as leader of the NDP in the face of the loss? “That’s not a question for tonight,” he said bluntly every time he was asked last night. An 8:30 a.m. press conference this morning was cancelled, though an NDP source admitted Hampton may have something to release later today.
Hampton indicated last night he would have to discuss the leadership with his wife, Sudbury MPP Shelley Martel, who also won her seat again last night, and party officials.
Meanwhile, Hoszowski wouldn’t let her loss here, nor her party’s defeat provincially, get her down.
“I’m fine. I’m feeling very positive.
We put our best effort forward,” she said last night from her campaign office in Kenora. “I think what you’re seeing is that I got the backlash [against the PC party] that happened across the province, and you can’t help that.
“That’s politics.” While she couldn’t deny her party fell to the overwhelming Liberal landslide elsewhere in the province, she was irked by Hampton’s sweeping victory in Kenora- Rainy River.
“What have you got now? You have an MPP with no party and he’s living in Sudbury,” Hoszowski also noted that while Hampton thanked the First Nations for their support at the polls, “he has done nothing for them,” she charged.
She added she has no regrets.
“You know what it’s like when you work on something you feel positive about, knowing it just feels right?” she noted. “At the end of the day, I can look at myself in the mirror.”