They spent 36 days taking the Liberal Party of Canada’s platform door to door across the ridings of Newmarket-Aurora and Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill, and now Newmarket and Aurora’s MPs-elect are eager to get to Ottawa and put the plan in action.
On Sept. 20, Canadians went to the polls and re-elected a Liberal minority government under leader Justin Trudeau.
Here at home, voters followed the trend, re-electing incumbent Liberal Tony Van Bynen over Conservative challenger – and Aurora Councillor – Harold Kim in Newmarket-Aurora, and Liberal candidate Leah Taylor Roy over two-term Conservative incumbent Leona Alleslev in Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill.
The total number of ballots cast in Newmarket-Aurora was 55,662, with 372 ballots considered spoiled.
In Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill, 46,406 total ballots were cast, 509 of which were spoiled.
“I am looking forward to getting back to work,” said Van Bynen. “There’s a lot of things we put forward in our platform that I am eager to make sure we start getting some implementation done, start moving forward, and start getting some traction on some of the priorities.”
It is a “new experience” for Taylor Roy, who says she’s “looking forward to learning from pros like Tony” as well as revisiting some of the residents she met along the campaign trail.
“I am looking forward to following up with a number of people I spoke to in the riding that had specific issues and really meeting with groups here and making sure I understand what the priorities are [of all parties], trying to figure out what they think is the most important thing because part of my agenda will be set, obviously, by what the riding finds important.”
Looking back over the 36-day campaign, Van Bynen says the plan for $10 a day child care particularly resonated with voters, something Taylor Roy agrees with, stating that that particular platform plank dovetailed with the primary issue she heard at the door: affordability.
“The Quebec model shows that every dollar invested in daycare has a return of $1.80 or $2.80, so it makes a lot of economic sense and it enables more people to get involved in the community, business and the economy,” said Van Bynen.
Added Taylor Roy: “The other thing child care addresses is affordability. We heard about housing prices, but child care is like a second mortgage. If you have two children, it can be $3,000 to $4,000 a month. Getting that child care policy, we can also address affordability in our region, which is very important.”
“Other things that resonated in the last half of the campaign,” she continues, “was safety and security in our neighbourhoods. The spectre of Conservatives re-evaluating semi-assault rifles to see which ones should be reviewed and included was ludicrous in my mind and I think a lot of people in our community felt the same way: why would we waste money looking at which semi-automatic rifles should be legal? The answer is clear to me: none whatsoever.”
Liberals, although they have “a lot of good ones,” don’t “have the monopoly” on good ideas and both say they are looking forward to working with community members of all political stripes to find common ground.
“It is reaching out to all those different groups and regardless of political leaning, being open to ideas and concerns and working together on the really important issues we have to address here,” said Taylor Roy.
Added Van Bynen: “They key is listening, not necessarily having to agree, but listening and finding a solution.”
Brock Weir is a federally funded Local Journalism Initiative reporter at The Auroran
