PHOTO: Tim Peterson's face of defeat.
The only surprise in Mississauga was in the South.
No one was sure who would win. All we knew was it would be a tight race.
Turned out it wasn't even a tight race.
Charles Sousa, a great candidate, destroyed Tim Peterson. The destruction was so great it appeared to catch Peterson off guard. He walked into his campaign office about 40 minutes after the polls had closed.
CBC had declared Sousa the winner by then. CTV had Peterson down by 1,300 votes. The Rogers Cable team was going live with Peterson, and the reporter didn't yet know Peterson was dead.
When Peterson was let go to face the other reporters in the room, he wouldn't even consider the possibility that his riding could have been called so quickly. He told reporters that as soon as they got their microphones "out of my face," he might have a chance to see the numbers and know what was going on.
Everyone in the room appeared to understand Peterson's fate but Peterson himself. He may have been keeping strong for the team, or he may have simply not believed it. Not so early. Not by so much.
It is sad to watch someone lose such a fight so handily. He will be fine, of course, but anyone with the ability to empathize can't help feeling for the guy.
There's no easy way for an incumbent to take such a beating. That's democracy, though, and I think the outcome was for the best for the people of Mississauga South.
Had Peterson won the seat and been in opposition, the people of the riding would have no voice. If McGuinty didn't listen to Peterson the Grit, he certainly wasn't going to listen to Peterson the Tory.
Now it's up to the voters down south to hold Sousa to his promises. It will be interesting to see if he can keep Lakeview from becoming a power generating powerhouse, as he said he'd work to do.
We'll go through all this again in 2011. Until then, we have a federal election or two to gleefully anticipate.
I will be blogging more about the results in Mississauga tomorrow.
It's 2:20 a.m. now, though, and time to sleep. Then, in the morning, we can return to the regularly scheduled program, already in progress.
Comments (2)
Hey there, Mr. MacBride.
Didn't watch Rogers so I didn't know about Tim Peterson's own personal hell.
You writing about what happened and especially:
gave me a stab of "feeling for the guy."
Then again, Mr. MacBride you weren't there for three evenings during the clause-by-clause deliberations of the most important bill affecting municipalities since the 2001 Municipal Act.
So I've already stopped feeling for Tim Peterson.
Plus I know that had Peterson won, he'd have delivered a victory speech that would've contained something like:
"I feel vindicated by the intelligence of the Mississauga South voters who've blessed me today with their confidence etc etc etc."
I just wish the other Liberal sitting to Peterson's left those evenings also went down.
And I wouldn't have even cared if they were defeated by Conservatives.
Ontarians must live with Bill 130 every time they deal with their city halls.
Unforgiveable.
Love,
The Mississauga Muse
Posted by The Mississauga Muse | October 11, 2007 9:41 AM
Posted on October 11, 2007 09:41
Democracy is a Participation Sport
First I will take you back to the 2003 Mississauga South Provincial Liberal Nomination Meeting
Nominees listed in order of expressing their interest and submitting their Nomination Papers to Liberal Party Headquarters – Stephen Wahl, Peter Ferreira, Tim Peterson
Nominees in order of standing after votes cast (I’m kind of guessing because I was never given the official count except for my own) Tim Peterson - 300 plus, Peter Ferreira - 100 plus, Stephen Wahl-12
Skip Forward to Ontario Provincial Election 2007
Tim Peterson acclaimed (proclaimed?) as Progressive Conservative Candidate for Mississauga South – Tim lost the seat to the Liberals thus making him the first ever Candidate to cause the Conservatives to loose this riding twice in a row after holding on to it since before Confederation.
Peter Ferreira ran for the New Democrats in the Riding of Davenport; He lost to the Liberals.
Stephen Wahl chose not seek a nomination for the 2007 election and instead gave his support to the Liberal Candidate in the Riding of Mississauga South. The Liberal Candidate, Charles Sousa, Mississauga South won the seat from the incumbent Conservative, also known as Tim Peterson.
In the Riding where I (Stephen Wahl) currently live; the candidate for whom I cast my ballot did not win; I knew in advance he had no chance to win. I did not cast my vote as a protest or strategically. I cast my ballot for the person who I felt most deserved my vote.
Do I feel that I wasted my vote? Not at all. Democracy is more than getting off your bum every few years and dropping a piece of paper in a box. By the time you get to the ballot box; all the really important choices have already been made; and for most people those choices have been made by somebody else.
Democracy is a participation sport. You have to stay in the game to play the game.
Posted by Stephen Wahl | October 15, 2007 2:52 PM
Posted on October 15, 2007 14:52