NDP: Newly elected MPS admit surprise

Laurin Liu woke up Tuesday morning shell shocked.

The McGill University student from Calgary had just been elected MP for the NDP in Riviere-des-Mille-Iles, Que.

“It was a very modest campaign in my riding but I few spoke to a few constituents,” she said, admitting that until recently, she’d barely visited the area, located northwest of Montreal.

“I am very, very proud. It has been a very interesting experience, but also a very rewarding one,” she said at the gathering of newly elected NDP MPs, assembled at the Outremont riding office of Thomas Mulcair.

Actor and activist Tyrone Benskin, who’d been touted as a strong candidate in Jeanne-Le-Ber, was also a little amazed.

“There are many times I have gone to Question Period and looked down and now I am going to be in one of those chairs,” he said, admitting he’s a bit nervous.

One winner who wasn’t so surprised was Outremont’s Thomas Mulcair, who won the NDP’s first seat in the province in 2008.

But what may have amazed him was just how many colleagues he’ll now see in Parliament.

Another of those will be Helene Laverdiere – the NDP who won the Laurier-Sainte-Marie riding over Gilles Duceppe.

Duceppe was leader of the Bloc Quebecois until immediately following the election, when he resigned from his post as party head.

“We are all in the same situation, we’re focusing getting ready for the next step which is to deliver,” Laverdiere said.

But what many people are wondering about is how newly elected MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau will fair – given that the bar manager from Gatineau barely speaks any French and spent much of the campaign in Las Vegas.

But Mulcair says it’s a challenge they’re excited and prepared to face, a sentiment echoed earlier Tuesday by NDP Leader Jack Layton.

“When people vote for change, that’s exactly what they they’re hoping will happen,” he said.