Amaroso says campaign restored her faith in younger generation

Despite a third place finish behind victorious Progressive Conservative candidate Ross Romano and first runner up Joe Krmpotich of the NDP in the Sault byelection held Thursday, Liberal candidate Debbie Amaroso was all smiles in front of supporters gathered at HD Sports Grill about 90 minutes after the polls closed.

While acknowledging Thursday’s byelection result was not the one she and the Liberals wanted, Amaroso, a former Sault mayor and city councillor, said “being back in the community in front of everyone, getting the reception I got from people at the door, it’s priceless, and I will not have one regret about these last four weeks.”

“You have all restored my faith in your generation,” Amaroso told her younger campaign workers.

“You’re smart, you’re hardworking, you’re fun, you’re learning to vote.”

Speaking to SooToday, Amaroso said “this is never the result you want, but it was a campaign I enjoyed very much, it was great to be out in front of the people of Sault Ste. Marie again, they were very warm and supportive.”

Amaroso campaigned largely on the importance of having an MPP for the Sault on the government side of the house.

With the departure of former Liberal MPP and cabinet minister David Orazietti from provincial politics and the opposition PCs winning the Sault riding, that representation on the government benches is gone (unless the Conservatives win the 2018 general election and Romano retains the riding).

“We’ve had very good representation (by opposition members) in years gone by where they weren’t at the table and Sault Ste. Marie was always left behind.  We’ve now had over a decade of being at that table and you don’t have to look very far to see the benefits of that,” Amaroso said, pointing to the Sault’s new hospital, new schools, the Hub Trail and other projects.

“That representation will not be there for the next year.”

Amaroso said she made an attempt to return to public life (after losing the mayor’s seat in the 2014 municipal election) to keep up that representation, not directly ruling out another try in the 2018 general election.

“I don’t know what will happen next year . . . I’ve said ‘never’ before,” Amaroso said.      

Eleanor McMahon, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, was on hand to support Amaroso, representing Premier Kathleen Wynne.

“It’s very difficult to put your name forward in public life . . . you worked really, really hard (in this byelection campaign) and you should be incredibly proud of yourself,” McMahon told Amaroso.

The significance of losing the Sault riding to the Progressive Conservatives was not lost on Premier Kathleen Wynne.

In a statement released Thursday evening, Wynne wrote “Sault Ste. Marie is a riding that’s been represented by parties of all stripes over the years. Byelections are always tough contests for the governing party, and this race was no different.”

Wynne signalled she and the Liberals have some work to do in regaining the confidence of Saultites and many Ontarians by stating “with the Legislature rising today, I look forward to connecting with people across the province this summer as we continue to work together to build Ontario up.”