It was a subdued mood at all the campaign rooms in the Battlefords Monday night.
That included the Tropical Inn meeting room booked for supporters of Conservative Gerry Ritz. The incumbent was on his way to yet another election victory in Battlefords-Lloydminster, eventually claiming 62 per cent of the vote in the riding.
Yet the atmosphere stood in stark contrast to the jubilation seen at his victory gathering in 2011.
It was because of the sound defeat of Stephen Harper’s government across the country. Justin Trudeau and the Liberals won a majority in Monday’s election, ending nine years of Conservative rule.
The defeat of the Harper government brings an end to Ritz’s time as federal Agriculture and Agri-foods minister. And that means a sad time for his staff in the ministry who will be looking for jobs in the private sector.
It also means changes for Ritz, who acknowledged there will be far less international travelling on his schedule now.
“I’ll get home a little more. The BBEX awards I might be able to attend, the Chamber of Commerce luncheons I might be able to attend,” said Ritz.
“I usually find myself on the wrong part of the world when those things are going on. I’ve had the great opportunity to lay a wreath in Europe on Nov. 11 on several occasions, in Hong Kong a couple of times, Korea. I’ve been in Japan and China with the prime minister on Nov. 11. So, I’ll be home, which will be a nice change.”
He expressed pride about the work he was able to accomplish in government.
“We had great results out of all of those trips that we made. Agricultural trade is up 77 per cent; three of the highest income, net income years for farmers that we’ve ever seen, brand new trade routes and a lot more markets out there to keep filling.”
As for his role on the opposition benches, Ritz gave an indication he will be looking to make sure the new Liberal government will implement the trade deals that are now in place.
“We’ve been very tough negotiators on trade packages. We now have a trade arrangement with the European Union and of course the brand new Trans-Pacific Partnership. I’ll be pressing the Liberals very hard to get that implemented sooner rather than later so we can maintain those global supply chains. It’s going to make a difference to Saskatchewan agriculture, north of a billion dollars a year once it’s fully implemented. So you know, those are big numbers that businesses in Saskatchewan look forward to implementing.”
Larry Ingram watched the results from Turtleford where his campaign team was based.
“I didn’t win the war, but won a few battles,” said Ingram, who could point to a number of positives, including the increase in popular vote for the Liberals in the riding from under four per cent in 2011 to over 16 per cent, closely behind the showing of NDP candidate Glenn Tait.
Ingram believed the riding saw an influx of new voters, including participation from more young people as well as more First Nation involvement.
“We didn’t change like other areas did, but we definitely got a lot more people in the voting and First Nations took a major lead and role in voting, which in our democracy is excellent.” Ingram says he believes increased participation was seen across the country as well.
He was particularly euphoric about the Liberal victory across the country, using words like “awesome” and “excellent” to describe it.
“It’s beautiful to see,” said Ingram.
He said he’s impressed with leader Justin Trudeau whom he’s had a chance to meet during the campaign.
“He’s so fluent, speaks so well, he’s so passionate about what he’s saying we can do as a country. It brought a lot of people into the fold,” said Ingram.
At the NDP committee room on 98th Street, the mood was subdued as NDP candidate Glenn Tait and his supporters watched the local and national returns roll in.
The most important thing, Tait said, was removing the Stephen Harper government. But supporters there made it known they weren’t happy with a Trudeau government, either.
As for the outcome, Tait was not surprised.
“Of course I’m disappointed in the way things turned out but they weren’t far from what we expected, particularly in our own riding,” said Tait.
Noticed by Tait was the surge of the Liberals both nationally and in the riding itself.
“We are surprised, both locally and federally, at how well the Liberals are doing. There is a tremendous Liberal surge and part of that has rubbed off in this riding. Larry (Ingram) is doing quite well.”
He believed that was due to inroads at NDP and Conservative expense, but also an influx of new voters.
Overall, the NDP fell to third place and 44 seats.
As for the national results, Tait observed that people jumped over to the Liberals to stop the Conservatives, in reaction to the Liberals’ surge in poll numbers, and in doing so drained away votes from the NDP.
“New Democrat support is quite strong still, but it’s less than what will win the seats we used to have.”
As for Doug Anguish, it was a quiet scene at his election office on 100th Street.
The former MP and MLA had hoped for a political comeback in this federal election. But his upstart independent campaign fizzled out at the ballot box. Anguish wound up with a little over a thousand votes and a fourth-place finish, just ahead of the Green Party.
“If we wouldn’t have tried we wouldn’t have known,” said Anguish.
“Gerry Ritz obviously still has a commanding presence in this constituency that I underestimated. That’s democracy in action.”
Anguish had jumped in to the election race just four weeks before and had run an active campaign that included an extensive lawn-sign effort.
But that effort saw setbacks as well, as several of his signs were vandalized the previous week with vandals spraying “NDP” and “Liberal” on them.
On election night, Anguish acknowledged it was a challenge to run as an independent without the organization a political party has at its disposal.
“There was a lot of work for a handful of people to do. I would have hoped to have done a little better in the results. But nevertheless the results are what the results are and that’s how the democratic process works.”
