Tory star candidate Larry Smith finishes third, not returning to the Senate

<p>MONTREAL – Former Montreal Alouettes president Larry Smith is not returning to the Senate after his disappointing third-place finish in the election Monday night.</p> <p>Liberal incumbent Francis Scarpaleggia was re-elected in the riding of Lac-Saint-Louis, while Smith was also beaten by Alain Ackad of the NDP. </p> <p>Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed Smith to the upper chamber last December, but he resigned to run in the campaign.</p> <p>Smith says he had “no illusion of returning to the Senate because I have resigned and that was a condition of me running.”</p> <p>But he hasn’t ruled out staying in politics, saying “there was still some gas left in the tank.” </p> <p>The former Canadian Football League commissioner blamed his defeat on the rolling tide created by NDP leader Jack Layton.</p> <p>”The beneficiaries of the wave are some of the young people who have been elected,” he said.</p> <p>”It was a big wave and a big breath of air that came in and carried people to their successes.”</p> <p>Scarpaleggia said he was surprised his NDP challenger came in second and admitted he expected to be battling Smith for top spot.</p> <p>”Of course, I think everyone in Canada was surprised by what has been referred to as the NDP surge,” he said. “Even the NDP themselves.”</p> <p>”Nobody was expecting that 10 days ago, so, yes, it was a surprise and we just had to deal with it.</p> <p>Scarpaleggia also took a jab at Smith.</p> <p>”I’m a grassroots politician, I came from the bottom up, I was never parachuted, I had to win a very tough nomination in Lac-Saint-Louis in 2004,” he said.</p> <p>Scarpaleggia was one of more than 30 Liberals who were elected across Canada.</p> <p>”Obviously I’m disappointed, but parties face setbacks and they rebuild and we’ll have to meet as a caucus and map out our approach to winning back the hearts and minds of Canadians,” he said.</p> <p>He wouldn’t comment on the future of Michael Ignatieff and whether the Liberal party leader should resign.</p> <p>”We’re very proud of the way he handled himself during the whole the campaign, he ran a good campaign, Scarpaleggia said.</p> <p>The longtime Liberal also praised the speech Ignatieff gave after his own personal defeat on election night.</p> <p>”It was a speech that was poetic, evidently a bit sad, but it was inspiring,” Scarpaleggia said. </p>