The winner of the Scarborough Centre riding in Tuesday’s federal election has condemned the prime minister for breaking his own fixed-date election law.
Liberal candidate and incumbent John Cannis, won the east Toronto riding for a sixth consecutive time. He took 48.67 per cent of the votes (17,902) beating Conservative challenger Roxanne James who received 30.12 per cent of the votes (11,078.)
During his victory celebration, Cannis spoke of the lack of integrity of many “reformers” and criticized Stephen Harper for the sudden election call.
“We, the Liberal team supported his fixed elections dates, and I thought he was … not going to break the law, but they chose to break their own law and call an election,” he said.
Cannis also talked about how many times Harper had, in his words, “mislead” the country to foreshadow trouble for Canadian democracy.
In the prime minister’s defence, Roxanne James spoke about Harper as conducive to her campaign.
“Mr. Harper, people have seen he is not how the Liberals painted him in the last election, he has come good on all his promises,” she said. “They see him as a great leader, and I think he is going to win it for us.” James believed a win for her was feasible up until the end. Cannis, who admitted he had not been prepared for an early election, stated that he was confident of his victory from the beginning.