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(Posted
7:30 a.m., May 3)
St.
Peter High
By Fred Sherwin
Orléans
Online After
becoming the first Conservative MP to get re-elected in Orléans in 136
years last time out, Royal Galipeau has now become the first Conservative to ever
win three successive mandates in the riding after defeating Liberal challenger
David Bertschi in Monday's federal election. Aided
by a surpirsingly strong NDP showing, Galipeau relied upon a Conservative base
that has been solidified over the past five years to win by nearly 4,000 votes.
That's roughly the same margin of victory he enjoyed in 2008. In fact, the results
were almost identical. "Together
we made history," he told his supporters at the Orléans Legion after being
declared the winner. "I pledge that I will serve with humility, honour, humour
and energy." In
the last federal election Galipeau garnered 44.8 per cent of the vote. On Monday
he received 44.6 per cent of the vote. Bertschi, meanwhile, recieved 38.5 per
cent of the vote, which was slightly off the 38.7 per cent that his predecessor
Marc Godbout received in 2008. The
most glaring difference between the election in 2008 and Wednesday's vote was
the support the NDP picked up at the expense of Green Party candiate Paul Maillet,
who was running for the second consecutive time. In
2008, he received 3,833 votes, while the NDP candidate, Amy O'Dell, received 6,127
votes. On Monday, Maillet saw his support dwindle to just 1,844 votes while NDP
candidate Martine Cenatus got over 9,100 votes. Cenatus
total was just 236 votes off the benchmark set by former NDP candidate Mark Leahy
in the 2006 General Election. Cenatus' total is remarkable considering the 25-year-old
university student didn't knock on a single door or attend a single all candidate's
debate. The
voter turnour in Ottawa-Orléans was extremely high at 73 per cent which is a testament
to the local campaigns of both Galipeau and Bertschi in getting out the vote.
In the end though, it was Bertsch's inability to woo local NDP and Green Party
supporters tthat cost him a shot at toppling Galipeau. Together
they accounted for 17 per cent of the vote which is slightly higher than in 2008
when they made up 16.4 per cent of the vote and slightly less than 2006 when they
accounted for 19 per cent of the total votes cast. Galipeau's
biggest challenge over the next four years will be intrying to make good on his
promise to keep an interprovincial bridge out of the Greenbelt and bring a technology
transfer centre to the National Research Council. (This
story was made possible thanks to the generous support of our local
business partners.) Return
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