THANK YOU

Thank you to the thousands of people in Ottawa South who voted for our campaign on Thursday. Thank you to all of the volunteers and donors who made our campaign what it was - including all of the new folks who got active in electoral politics for the first time ever because of our campaign.

Six weeks ago we had no idea an election was coming. Five weeks ago we didn’t have a candidate. Between then and Thursday we nominated a candidate, organized a campaign team, knocked on thousands upon thousands of doors, made thousands of phone calls and raised tens of thousands of dollars. We worked hard. We were even a Youtube sensation for a brief period of time.

As for the result, the inescapable truth is that Thursday night was a great night for Conservatives and incumbents (except of course for those NDP incumbent seats we lost). Having said that, out of the 97 seats in Ontario without NDP incumbents, Ottawa South finished 16th in vote percentage. In terms of all ridings across Ontario - including the 28 NDP incumbent seats - we finished 46th out of 124. To provide some perspective, we finished 84th in 2018 and 51st in 2022.

In short, with every election we improve our ranking in comparison with all other NDP campaigns in the province, including on Thursday night. That, friends, is real progress.

We didn’t win Thursday night. But we continue to grow. It was a tough loss, but I’m proud to have been our candidate. And we will continue the fight.

A federal election is imminent. With Hena Masjedee as our candidate, the NDP in Ottawa South will once again be the voice for social justice, equality and peace in the coming campaign.

We will challenge Liberal and Conservative voices calling for cuts and the dismantling of public services and offer a better future.

Let’s dust ourselves off and prepare for the next fight.

Thank you again. Merci. Shukran.