Local loss, national win for Liberals

By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express

A majority Liberal government will be taking over the House of Commons, but local candidate Tito-Dante Marimpietri will not be a part of it after finishing third behind NDP’s Mary Fowler and re-elected Conservative incumbent Colin Carrie.

Depsite the loss, Marimpietri was optimistic after the election night results came.

“This is a very very proud moment for us as a party,” he said, speaking to the media after a speech at the Italian Club in Oshawa. “Nobody even thought we were competitive and we actually had a shot at winning here…I’m really thankful for the support confidence from the people of Oshawa.”

What many expected to be a two-way race between Fowler and Carrie turned into a three-way race early in the polls.

Just past the halfway mark, with over 135 of the 270 polls reporting. Marimpietri was a not-so-distant third with 28.9 percent of the vote behind Fowler’s 33.7 percent and Carrie’s leading 37.4 percent.

Marimpietri admits the loss is bittersweet as he envisioned the opportunities for Oshawa if he were able to be a part of a Liberal majority, however he still sees a bright future.

“I’m still very hopeful and optimistic that I’ll be able to play a role in the future and provide the ability for our government to know what the issues are in our community and essentially ensure that those issues and those concerns and those initiatives are undertaken in a positive way to grow our community for the future,” he says.

The Liberals saw a massive surge in the Oshawa riding from the previous 2011 election. In 2011, the Liberals garnered only 3,536 votes. Marimpietri more than quadrupled that number finishing the night with 16,601.

Incumbent Carrie finished with a leading 23,179 votes, ahead of Fowler with 19,356.

Marimpietri would not comment on his next move, following years as an Oshawa city councillor, saying it was too early to tell.

For Fowler, finishing behind Carrie at….(add poll numbers)….there is still a lot to be happy about following the election.

“We’re really excited about the voter turnout, we’re excited about the number of young people that were engaged in the conversation that we had at their doors and came in to our office to come and volunteer,” Fowler said.

“We think that it actually only means really good things for the future, both for our party, but mostly for the people of Oshawa. I mean, having an engaged youth means that we’re going to have people that are helping to make change happen for our great community.”

Fowler also would not comment on her next steps, and said it was too early to say if she would run in the 2019 federal election.