Ottawa-Orléans turns blue

Weekly Journal
Thursday, January 26, 2006

If there was one indicator that Ottawa-Orléans Conservatives were prepared to win the Jan. 23 federal election, it was office space.

Tory volunteers booked the old Centrum Boulevard CAA location four hours before the Liberals walked through the door looking to rent the same space. The Conservatives had even painted over the red walls.

But the bid to win the Ottawa-Orléans riding began nine months ago, after the local Conservative party developed a strategy to beat one-term Liberal MP Marc Godbout.

Local Conservatives were determined to win the seat back, after nearly winning it in the June 2004 election. Their candidate Walter Robinson lost to Godbout by 2,728 votes.

That's not nearly as close as Monday's election, when Godbout in turn lost to the Conservative candidate Royal Galipeau by 1,199 votes.

"Walter helped me"

"Walter Robinson laid the basis for what we worked on this time," Galipeau said Jan. 23. "Walter Robinson helped me take over the ground."

But first, they had to mark their territory. Volunteers, including the candidate, started knocking on doors in March 2004 and never really quit.

Monday night, Galipeau read his acceptance speech while the volume was turned down on a near-by television set broadcasting Prime Minister Paul Martin's concession speech.

"This business often feeds fake pride," Galipeau said. "It's (often) a question of humility or humiliation. I prefer the former."

The riding also had a larger turnout this week, compared to the 2004 numbers. In total, 3,279 more residents decided to cast a ballot. Most of those went to the NDP. The party gained 3,434 votes over the last election.

"Our vote was up 50 per cent from the last time," said NDP candidate Mark Leahy. "There are three times the number of people on the campaign now than there were in the beginning. We plan to keep a strong riding association."

Final preliminary results for Ottawa-Orléans say 61,921 of 82,496 voters (75.1 per cent) cast a ballot on Jan. 23. The unofficial results are:

* Royal Galipeau (Conservative) 25,414 (41 per cent)
* Marc Godbout (Liberal) 24,215 (39.1 per cent)
* Mark Andrew Leahy (NDP) 9,339 (15.1 per cent)
* Sarah Samplonius (Green) 2,368 (3.8 per cent)
* Alain Saint-Yves (Independent) 585 (0.9 per cent)