On Election Day, October 19, Conservative MP Ted Falk won re-election in the riding of Provencher. However, this time he’ll head back to Ottawa as an opposition Member of Parliament—and 60 of his former colleagues in the Conservative caucus won’t be joining him.
That’s because the Liberals, under the leadership of Justin Trudeau, surged from just 36 seats to an improbable 184, more than enough to form a majority government in the 338-seat House of Commons, a result few political observers saw coming.
“It’s disappointing, of course. We would have much preferred another majority mandate for our Conservative party,” Falk says. “So that will be interesting, but we’ll adjust. We’ll do what we have to and we’ll build relationships with the Liberals.”
Falk earned 55.8 percent of the vote, down slightly from 58.2 percent in the 2013 by-election when he replaced outgoing Conservative MP Vic Toews. In 2011, Toews had been elected with 70.6 percent of the vote.
“I feel absolutely wonderful about the numbers,” says Terry Hayward, the Liberal Party candidate. He took second place with 34.4 percent. “We’ve improved our vote count substantially since 2011, when we only had 7 percent of the vote. That’s a great compliment to the great team I had.”
Hayward says that even he did not expect the overwhelming Liberal majority that voters across the country delivered. “But I felt things change about 3 weeks ago, even at the doors here in Provencher. We were getting people interested in what we were saying.”
“With the strong surge that the Liberals have had the last couple of weeks, I’m actually really happy with my numbers,” Falk says about the local results. “It looks like I’m in the low to mid-50s. And it would have been nice to be closer to 70.”
Voter turnout in Provencher improved significantly. According to data from Elections Canada, the turnout here was 69.81 percent, up from 62 percent in 2011 and only 34 percent in 2013. The national turnout was 68.5 percent, the highest this country has seen since 1993.
This year’s 11-week campaign was one of the longest in Canadian history, and also the costliest, with the Conservatives calling the election all the way back on August 2. Normally, elections in Canada last 36 days. This one was more than twice that length.
“For us, obviously, the campaign was very long,” Falk says. “We would have preferred a campaign that would have been a more 36-day campaign as opposed to 11 weeks. I think there’s obviously things that the national leaders would have chosen to do different had they had another opportunity.”
Nonetheless, Falk is proud of the way the local campaign was fought. “We didn’t do any mud-slinging, we didn’t run a negative campaign at all. The only flyers that we sent out, the literature that we distributed, it was a positive message. We didn’t do any of the harsh contrast pieces. We stayed completely away from that, and I’m proud of that. It’s something that there was pressure for us to do, because statistics show that it works.”
“All 4 of us ran a very positive campaign,” Hayward agrees, referring to Falk, NDP candidate Les Lilley, and Jeff Wheeldon from the Green Party. “On the national front, I couldn’t be more proud of anyone than I am of our leader, Justin Trudeau. It was a positive message he gave… I applaud him for being such a very positive individual.”
On election night, Trudeau sounded a conciliatory note when addressing the nation from his home riding in Montreal. “Stephen Harper has served this country for a decade, and as with anyone who has devoted their life to this country, we thank [him] for his service,” Trudeau says. “I want to remind everyone, as I said many times over the course of this campaign, Conservatives are not our enemies; they’re our neighbours. Leadership is about bringing people of all different perspectives together.”
“In the last 9 and a half years, I have had the incredible honour to serve as your prime minister,” Harper said from Calgary, appearing in good spirits despite his party’s setbacks. “Our country is one of the most enduring democracies in the world today, and today for the 42nd time in 148 years, Canadians have chosen a national Parliament. While tonight’s result is certainly not the one we had hoped for, the people are never wrong. The people have elected a Liberal government, a result that we accept without hesitation.”
In a short statement, Harper stepped down from his leadership of the Conservative Party. He will continue to serve as a Member of Parliament for his constituents in Calgary Heritage.
Trudeau ended the night with an infusion of optimism for the future of our country. “My friends, we beat fear with hope. We beat cynicism with hard work. We beat negative, divisive politics with a positive vision that brings Canadians together. Most of all, we defeated the idea that Canadians should be satisfied with less, that good enough is good enough, and that better just isn’t possible. Well, my friends, this is Canada. And in Canada, better is always possible.”
