Given the tall task he and his party faced locally, the results for Barrie-Innisfil NDP candidate Andrew Harrigan were predictable in Thursday night's provincial election, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth the effort.
“I wouldn’t change a thing,” said the Innisfil resident, who works with at-risk youth and is his union local president. “I had a crack team and we did everything possible. Just because we didn’t get it this time doesn’t mean we’ll stop. We’ll keep on going.”
Harrigan finished third behind Progressive Conservative incumbent Andrea Khanjin, who won for the third consecutive election.
Khanjin, a minister in Doug Ford's government at dissolution, is the only MPP that has been elected in the riding that was created in 2018.
Relatively unknown back then, Khanjin is now a local powerhouse and leaves slim pickings for other candidates such as Harrigan, especially in the circumstances in which the election was called. It was the first winter election in more than four decades, taking place amidst at-times brutal weather with less than a month to campaign.
“Not the ideal time to knock on doors,” said Harrigan.
Liberal candidate Dane Lee finished second, with about 25 per cent of the vote, less than half of what Khanjin appeared set to garner as the last ballots were being counted late Thursday night.
Green Party candidate Stephen Ciesielski was headed for fourth place, while the New Blue’s Sam Mangiapane and the Ontario Moderate Party’s Anna Yuryeva were headed for fifth- and sixth-place finishes, respectively.
Lee’s relatively strong second-place showing was notable for other reasons: he had no presence in the riding. Based in Kitchener, where he works as a parliamentary assistant for a federal MP, Lee was invisible locally. The Liberal campaign had no ground game and not even a headshot of Lee was provided by way of media materials.
Though modestly more visible, the other candidates made little impression on local voters by traditional means. Local media encountered problems getting candidates aside from Harrigan to consent to interviews.
The lack of signs, door knocking, debates and other traditional electioneering tactics could be put down somewhat to the snap call to the polls, but Harrigan said he feared other forces were at work.
“This isn’t democracy,” he said in reference to a non-campaign.
Bowed but unbroken, Harrigan vowed to continue the fight to get other voices heard in Barrie-Innisfil.
“I love what I do,” said Harrigan, “… (and) this is a calling.”