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Conservative MP Ed Komarnicki rode a blue wave back to Ottawa on Monday night, as he will now return with his party now forming a majority government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, with the big surprise nationally being the rise of the NDP and the collapse of the Bloc Quebecois.
With three challengers for the Souris-Moose Mountain seat, Komarnicki maintained or improved on the showing he had in the last election, trouncing all of his opponents handily with 74 per cent of the vote or 21,598 votes, with the NDP's Allan Arthur coming in a distant second with 18.7 per cent of the vote or 5,461; the Liberals' Gerald Borrowman third with 4.2 per cent of the vote or 1,236 votes, and the Green's Bob Deptuck with 3.1 per cent of the votes or 898.
The voter turnout in Souris-Moose Mountain was 63 per cent or 29,193 votes, slightly ahead of the national voter turnout of around 61 per cent.
According to the numbers at the end of the night Monday, the Conservatives have 167 seats, the NDP have 102, the Liberals 34, the Bloc was down to four, and the Green Party elected their leader Elizabeth May as their first MP in Parliament.
Reached at his campaign headquarters in Estevan, Komarnicki said, "I am very pleased we have a majority government. We gained a good number of seats; at the same time, the Bloc and the Liberal party did really poorly. Overall, we have to be pleased with the race."
Asked how the campaign went for him around the southeast Saskatchewan riding, he said, "I was well-received on the streets when I talked to people. It seemed to me the time went by quickly, and it was a short campaign."
Some of the issues of concern he heard included the cap-and-trade policy promoted by the NDP, and the general issue of keeping taxes low, which was important to many people, particularly businesses in the southeast.
"From seniors, raising the GIS was a good thing and was well-received, although more could be done," he added.
Overall, said Komarnicki, "we held our own for sure and the numbers were pretty consistent. I'm pretty happy with that, and anytime you get the majority, that's got to be a good thing."
With the numbers in their favour now, said Komarnicki, "hopefully we can get the budget back in and passed, and now we can get rid of the long gun registry."
As the runner-up, the NDP's Arthur was asked about his first run at federal politics.
"We left everything on the table, and we got more than we did last time. Everything looks pretty good for the future," said Arthur, noting he's young (at the age of 32) so he's looking forward to taking another run at the seat at the next election.
Formerly a mayor in municipal politics for the town of Qu'Appelle, Arthur said there seems to be a sense of disconnect in the higher political levels, plus he was dealing with a huge riding.
"I learned a lot, such as how to deal with the media, writing speeches; I'll just come back stronger next time," he said, adding of the probability of running next time, "I could pretty well guarantee it."
Arthur said he learned a great deal from his campaign manager, Tom Cameron, and he had a very positive response from most people he talked to, including those who were solidly on the right wing.
"There wasn't really anybody that was negative; they were open-minded to our ideas. It was all very positive," he said.
As for the national result, with his party now the Official Opposition with 102 seats, he said, "I don't think anybody thought that would happen. If you said that week ago, they would've said you were out of your mind. Jack Layton will be a fantastic leader of the opposition; he'll be strong. and next time we'll be much stronger in our lineup."
The Liberal candidate, Gerald Borrowman, took his first stab at federal politics in stride, saying, "It was an incredible experience for me. My reception was very positive, both to me and to the Liberal platform. However, the Conservatives did a very good job of trashing the reputation of my leader. That was a big problem right from the very start."
(The leader, Michael Ignatieff, did not win his seat in Greater Toronto, and his party dipped down to 34 seats, or only 18.8 per cent of the vote nationally.)
Of the new opposition leader, Borrowman commented, "I think Mr. Layton will have a job that will be like herding cats. It's going to be really different having the NDP as the opposition."
He noted he did a lot of face-to-face campaigning, focussing most of his efforts in the two cities of Souris-Moose Mountain, as the riding is so physically large he didn't have the ability to reach all of it except through printed and broadcast media.
"What troubled me is there seems to be a time warp out there, with people still concerned about issues like the gun registry and the Wheat Board. They don't want to move beyond the past. I had a platform I was very proud of. We had a platform that appealed to Canadians across the spectrum of every age group," said Borrowman.
With the positive support he feels he found around the riding, he said the party intends to build on that towards the next election, "even in the next weeks and months to come, we'll begin to build on that for the next time."
For Bob Deptuck, he took solace in that the Green Party leader Elizabeth May won her seat on the West Coast, the first time his party has won a seat in Parliament.
"I found lots of people were receptive to me, and I'm hoping the numbers show that. I think I ran a pretty good campaign, as much as I could with my limited resources," he said, noting he had to largely finance his own campaign, whereas parties like the Conservatives are able to use taxpayers' funds. "I think I did the best I could."
As far as the national results, Deptuck said, "I'm disappointed the Conservatives with their platform will have full control of Parliament. They historically don't have a good record with spending. Will they tame the deficit? That will be seen."
Having the leader in the House is a step forward, he added, noting it has taken the NDP 50 years to reach this point where they are now the Official Opposition.
As for whether he will run again, Deptuck said he will first see what happens under the Conservatives' regime. He added that the campaign took a toll on him as he worked at his job as well as campaigning largely out of his own pocket, which was a strain on his family life.
Nationally, the split in votes was 39.7 per cent for the Conservatives, 31 per cent for the NDP, 18.8 per cent for Liberals, 6.1 per cent for the Bloc, and 5 per cent for the Greens. The national voter turnout was estimated at about 61 per cent, which is slightly better than the last election.
