Peggy Revell
Incumbent NDP MP John Rafferty said he’s ready to “hit the ground running” after voters in Thunder Bay-Rainy River returned him to Parliament in Monday’s federal election.
“I’m humbled that the people of Thunder Bay-Rainy River have confidence in me to move forward and to continue the work that I’ve been doing for the last two-and-a-half years,” Rafferty remarked as supporters savoured his victory at the Victoria Inn in Thunder Bay.
With 18,039 of the votes, Rafferty leapt ahead in the polls this time around—up from the 14,478 votes which sent him to Ottawa for the first time in 2008.
Conservative candidate Maureen Comuzzi-Stehmann came second with 10,096 votes, followed by former Liberal MP Ken Boshcoff (8,066) and Green Party hopeful Ed Shields (909).
Rafferty’s win came along with the historic NDP “orange wave” which saw the party claim Official Opposition status for the first time in its 50-year with 105 seats across the country.
“I don’t know if 36, 37 days ago we would have imagined that this would happen, but it’s not a total surprise I have to say,” Rafferty noted about this upswing in NDP support.
“But it’s the same message that we’ve had for a long time,” he added. “It’s all about affordability and retirement security and health care, and the issues that we’ve always fought for.
“I suppose if there’s a sadness tonight, it’s that there is a [Conservative] majority government,” Rafferty said.
“I think we’ll continue doing a couple of things that we’ve always been doing,” noted Rafferty, referring to the approach he’ll be taking in Ottawa now that he’s facing a majority government.
The first is to continue working with anyone willing to work with him to “further the agenda of Canadian families,” Rafferty remarked, noting he’ll continue to work with MPs from all the parties.
He pledged to “hit the ground running” to get his private member’s bills on pension security and severance pay that died with the election call, and get ready to table them again in Parliament.
“They’re good bills and they’re what needs to be done for Canada,” he reasoned.
“And I’m hoping that that sort of co-operation that I’ve fostered over the last two-and-a-half years is going to continue,” he added, noting his bills were supported by a number of Conservative MPs.
“The second is to ensure that we don’t let [Conservatives] off the hook,” he stressed. “Four years from now is going to be a long time, and Canadians are going to have a really good look at Mr. Harper.
“And I hope that we can temper some of the things that we know he wants to do that we don’t think are good for Canada.”
Part of this centres around the proposed $11 billion in cuts the Conservatives had put forward at the beginning of this campaign, which remain “unexplained.”
“Where are those $11 billion in cut? They still didn’t say?” Rafferty charged, wondering if they’ll come at the expense of families, jobs, seniors, or public services.
“We don’t know yet,” he warned. “We’ll have to stay aware and we’ll have to keep on the Conservatives to ensure that Canadian families don’t fall behind.”
But will the Conservative majority listen?
“We haven’t had a look at [Harper’s] agenda yet so we don’t know,” Rafferty admitted.
“We’ll know when we hear the speech from the throne. We’ll know when we see the first budget.
“And we’ll have to just make sure that we keep in our sights what we think are important,” he added.