Martow wins Thornhill provincial byelection

Vaughan Weekly
February 19, 2014
By Angela Gismondi

Gila Martow is Thornhill’s new Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP).

The Progressive Conservative candidate held onto the Tory seat in the provincial byelection Thursday. The seat was held by former finance critic Peter Shurman who resigned in December.

Martow got 48 per cent of the vote while Liberal candidate and City Councillor Sandra Yeung Racco came in a close second with 41.5 per cent of the vote.

Martow celebrated with her friends, family and supporters at a victory party at La Vedette Banquet Hall in Concord.

Although the polls conducted prior to the election saw Martow as the favourite to win the seat, she didn’t see it as a sure thing.

“We all know the only poll that matters is on election day,” said Martow. “We went to a lot of doors and put up a lot of signs and spoke to a lot of people. Whenever somebody said to me, ‘you have more signs than your competitor,’ I said ‘signs don’t vote.’”

Now that the election is over, Martow is looking forward the opportunity to represent Thornhill at the provincial  level.

“I’ve lived here for 25 years ... it’s an amazing community,” said Martow. “I look forward to representing this community and having the privilege of being their voice at Queen’s Park.”

In her victory speech, Martow spoke to two of the major issues throughout the byelection – transit and gridlock. The byelection provided a unique opportunity to showcase Thornhill’s issues to the province, especially since there were only two byelections in Ontario this time.

“We’re counting on the support of the PC Party to get the subway to Richmond Hill and to work with all levels of government to put an end to gridlock and an end to our transit problems,” said Martow.

Martow thanked her family for their support and the hardworking volunteers, especially those who went door-to-door in the cold weather.  She also thanked Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak for canvassing with her and supporting her throughout the campaign.

She was especially grateful to those who went out and voted on election day. Martow thanked her fellow candidates for “a really great campaign.”

“It was awesome,” said Martow. “Of course it’s great to be up here on the podium and I have to say, except for the really cold days it was fun.”

Hudak was in Thornhill Thursday night to support the newest member of his team.

“Tonight it has become increasingly clear there are really only two choices for our province in the next election - the Liberal-NDP coalition that will raise your taxes, increase our debt and cost us jobs or an Ontario PC Party with the Billion Jobs Plan.”

Hudak said the byelection sent a strong message to the Liberals.

“The people of Ontario want to see change,” he said. “They want leadership that’s going to take decisive action and implement a plan that’s going to balance the budget, create jobs and get Ontario moving again.”

It was a rough night for the Liberals who lost the seat in Thornhill to the Tories and the seat in Niagara Falls to the New Democrats.

Premier Kathleen Wynne joined Liberal candidate Sandra Yeung Racco at Riviera Parque Dining Banquet Convention Centre in Concord where the mood was a little more somber.

“I don’t have any regrets,” said Yeung Racco. “My team ran a very positive, clean campaign and we fought hard.”

One of her major achievements through the campaign process was getting the Liberal message out to the community.

“The best thing about it was that I was able to reach out to the community. I spoke to as many people as I could to get the message out there,” said Racco. “Now the community knows that if the Hudak PCs don’t deliver what they’re supposed to, there is another option.”

The City councillor said she will continue to work hard for the community, no matter what position she is in.

“My passion to make the community better will always be there,” said Yeung Racco. “I will continue to fight hard in whatever capacity I’m in.”

As  for running in the next provincial election, Yeung Racco said she hasn’t decided.

“I haven’t even given that thought yet,”  she said. “I need to put my concentration back into the City first. I am still an elected official and I have a duty here - I have to make sure that I do that and that I do it well. I will give it some thought in the next month or so and make a decision at that time.”

For now, she wishes Martow the best of luck in her new role.

“I wish the newly elected MPP the best and hope she delivers for the people of Thornhill,” concluded Yeung Racco.

Wynne was disappointed with the outcome of the byelection, but said she won’t give up.

“This is a hard night, we’re not going to pretend that it’s not,” said Wynne.  “Tomorrow we’re going to get up and we’re going to start the fight for the next time.”

Whatever happened in the byelections is not reflective of what’s going to happen in the general election, she added.

“We’ve lost these skirmishes but we’re ready for the real battle,” said Wynne.

The outcome of the byelection doesn’t change anything in the makeup of the Ontario legislature. The Liberals remain in power with the Conservatives forming the official opposition.

As for the official byelection results, Martow won the race with 13,397 votes, followed by Yeung Racco who received 11,592 votes, New Democratic Party candidate Cindy Hackelberg received 1,896 votes and Teresa Pun of the Green Party of Ontario got 401 votes. Gene Blafour of the Ontario Libertairan Party garnered 295 votes, Erin Goodwin of the Freedom party of Ontario got 156 votes, Kevin Clarke of The People’s Political Party of Ontario received 146 votes and John Turmel of the Paupers Party received 49 votes.