Yasir Naqvi celebrates his convincing re-election with supporters.
In the end, the predictions of Yasir Naqvi’s imminent political demise were greatly exaggerated.
Naqvi, Ottawa Centre Liberal MPP, was widely believed to be staring defeat in the face at the hands of his NDP opponent, Anil Naidoo.
But on election night, Naqvi’s supporters were able to chant “four more years” as Ottawa Centre firmly held to its red stripes. Naqvi will head back to Queen’s Park to focus on what he said are three key issues in Ottawa Centre.
The re-elected MPP said he will spend time pursuing a smarter transit system, more community participation in residential development and improving services such as affording housing.
“Boy, oh boy, you haven’t seen anything yet,” Naqvi said in an interview after his crushing victory was confirmed.
He called knocking on 40,000 doors one of his proudest accomplishments during the campaign and he promised to start pounding the pavement again soon.
“My campaign team won’t be very happy to hear about this, but a month from now, I’ll be back at the doors,” he said, chuckling.
Ottawa Centre has a 40-year history of swinging between the Liberals and the NDP, and Naqvi added another four years to a 16-year Liberal run.
Following the “Orange Wave” in the federal election, many expected a tight race between Naqvi and Naidoo in a riding federal New Democrat Paul Dewar nabbed handily in May. But it was not to be.“This has been an amazing run, an amazing experience,” said Naidoo said after the result. “We can all rest . . . knowing we made a difference. We gave people a positive choice.”
However, Naqvi, who in 2007 narrowly defeated NDP challenger Will Murray by fewer than 2,000 votes, this time increased his margin of victory to almost 9,000, clinching nearly 47 per cent of ballots cast. At the same time, voter turnout dropped by 1,700.
Turnout in Ottawa Centre was 54 per cent, compared with 58 per cent in 2007. The overall provincial turnout was a historic low of 49.2 per cent.
On a night where the status quo reigned supreme, politicians attributed the results to Ontarians’ desire for stability.
“It’s up to people to decide and they decided that they would stick with who they knew and that’s the way it works in this business,” said Dewar.
Dewar said he is disappointed by the NDP’s loss, but hopeful for the party’s future in the community.
“It’s not because we didn’t have a good candidate . . . We had a great candidate, we had a great campaign and we brought in a lot of new people and we should be proud of that,” Dewar said. “We’ll dust ourselves off, pick ourselves up and get at it again in a couple years.”
Both former MPP Richard Patten and Scott Bradley, the federal Liberal candidate for Ottawa Centre in the May federal election, said people turn to what they know during tough economic times.
“We have very troubling and volatile times internationally. People are looking for some degree of stable leadership,” said Patten, adding that Naqvi will continue that stability into his second term.
Naqvi, also president of the Ontario Liberal Party, is a cabinet hopeful after an election that saw the defeat of four cabinet ministers, including Environment Minister John Wilkinson to Education Minister Leona Dombrowsky.
In a riding that has alternated between Liberal red and NDP orange since its creation in 1966, it was tough for PC candidate Rob Dekker to paint it Tory blue.
He was forced to play catch-up after entering the race later than the two frontrunners.
“I can’t really say anything went wrong. If there was one thing that could have helped us further along, that would have been more time to be campaigning,” Dekker said.
A former Bell Canada union president, Dekker received about 18 per cent of the vote.
“My hope is that next time an election comes around that whoever is nominated (for the PCs) has the opportunity to work a little longer at it and to start building more support,” he said.
The Greens’ Kevin O’Donnell placed at a distant fourth, with 2,184 votes or 4.3 per cent, a drop of about 4,000 from 2007.
Three other candidates – Stuart Ryan of the Communist Party, the Libertarians’ Michal Zeithammel and independent Kristina Chapman – received 309, 240, and 160 votes repectively.
–with files from Roy Toes