Victory in Guelph is a win for Canada, says MP-elect Lloyd Longfield, who came out on top of his third election campaign on Monday.
“It’s a tremendous win for Guelph,” Longfield, the Liberal incumbent, told about a dozen campaign supporters at his Edinburgh Road campaign office shortly after 11 p.m. “I think we’ve got a result, looking at a positive future.
“Together we’ll keep working on behalf of Guelph and on behalf of Canada.”
With 211 of the riding’s 247 polls reporting results, Longfield had 19,882 counted votes, nearly double that of Conservative candidate Ashish Sachan, who was in second place.
The first order of business, Longfield said, will be healing the scars inflicted by the pandemic.
“Particularly mental health scars and what can we do to support Canadians that need mental health in Guelph,” he said, adding the recovery of businesses is also a priority. “There are a lot of businesses that have struggled through this, but some businesses have done very well.”
As part of an expected minority Liberal government, again, Longfield believes Canadians want the government to work with opposition parties to get things done.
“We have to work together. The divisiveness of politics gets in the way of working together, but we need to find a way through all of that,” Longfield said.
“We’ll be working with the other parties to try to come to a consensus whenever we can. Of course with a majority, you can do things faster, but sometimes it’s good to take the time that it takes to get as much consensus as we can.”
The MP-elect thanked his campaign supporters as well as fellow candidates vying for Guelph’s seat in Parliament.
“It’s not an easy job to go through nomination processes and to step forward to serve your community,” he said. “To Ashish and Aishia and Michelle and the rest that have run, kudos to you and your teams for doing a great job to promote democracy and choice that we have as a community.
“Fortunately, that choice was for the Liberal Party.”
Longfield received 49.1 per cent of voter support during his first run in 2015, followed by 40.36 per cent in 2019. The first was part of a Liberal majority victory, while the latter saw a minority government installed.
“This was a different campaign, in the middle of a pandemic,” he said. “It was good to have an election to get a choice on where the country needs to go, so I feel good that we’ve been given a mandate to go in the direction that we’re looking at supporting Canadians and I’m thrilled to be part of that.”
Longfield, who has experienced health problems as of late and recently underwent a heart surgery, was non-committal about finishing the term. Prior to Monday, he was one month short of qualifying for an MP’s pension.
“I’m not in it for a pension. I’m here to serve the community,” he said, noting he’s “feeling great” and in the best shape he’s been in during the past 25 years. “I’m going to serve as long as I can and as well as I can.”
