OTTAWA – Yvonne Jones, the newly-elected Liberal MP for Newfoundland and Labrador, says Monday’s race that replaced former Conservative cabinet minister Peter Penashue “will have an impact” on the 2015 election.
“It will have an impact going into an election in 24 months,” said Jones, who will be in Ottawa when MPs return from a break next week.
“I think they’ve sent a strong message to the rest of the country here yesterday, that if you don’t like the government that you have, if you don’t like the way you’re being treated, if you don’t like your money being used to attack you and everyone else around you – well, then make a change.”
Jones, a former Liberal in the Newfoundland legislature, said the byelection was ultimately about local candidates and issues, such as resource development. But she said the Liberal party – including leader Justin Trudeau, who campaigned with Jones – also played a role.
“It brought home to the people of Labrador the reality of having a strong leader in this country and what that would mean to them,” she said.
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“I think that was critical in stabilizing and strengthening the vote that we had already established across Labrador.”
Penashue finished a distant second to Jones, the clear winner with just over 48 per cent of the vote.
Jones criticized the Conservative reaction to her win, after party spokesman Fred DeLorey twisted her victory into a loss for Justin Trudeau, because she purportedly dropped in the polls after Trudeau won the leadership.
“They’re sore,” said Jones. “They don’t like to lose, they’re always negative. They are dragging people down in this country. They are dragging all of us down. And we’ve got to rise above this.”
She said the Conservative campaign “went flat” halfway through the race because of attack ads and negative publicity against her.
“By the time they figured out that this was not registering with voters across Labrador and started to switch their technique to more look at more positive messaging, it was really too late to bring the electorate back around,” she said.
“People got tired of it.”
Penashue resigned as intergovernmental affairs minister in March, saying he wanted to regain the trust of voters after he broke campaign spending rules during the 2011 federal election.
Speaking at a news conference in Summerside, P.E.I. Tuesday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Penashue knew he was in a tough fight in Labrador.
“Peter Penashue knew full well that this would be difficult,” Harper said in French. “At the same time, he was determined to do the right thing and therefore he made that decision. And we want to thank him for his service to Canadians.”
Jones added that search and rescue was a uniting issue in the race, because of several high-profile cases in the province including the death of Labrador teenager Burton Winters, who froze to death on the ice.
“That was a huge factor in this election,” she said. “That was the eye-opener for a lot of people in Labrador. That hey, this government, these people do not care about us.”
– With files from Canadian Press
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