When all is said and done, the winner in Ajax-Pickering and his supporters all believe that in election campaigns it’s people who matter the most.
When the polls closed at 9 p.m. in Thursday’s provincial election, re-elected Liberal MPP Joe Dickson and his supporters crowded into his campaign office to watch the polling results.
Dickson won with 19,606 votes; Progressive Conservative Todd McCarthy earned 14,738; Evan Wiseman of the NDP was third with 5,951. The winner credited his supporters.
“The difference is that we had a special team of people who were unpaid volunteers who were as committed as I am to living a life that helps other people,” Dickson said.
Marlene Hawtin, who works in Dickson’s constituency office, said the victory was a group effort.
“I think it was a lot of hard work done by a lot of people,” she said with a sigh of relief.
Dickson savoured the victory not only with his volunteers, but also with Donna Dickson, his wife.
“Since Joe was elected four years ago, he hasn’t really taken a day off,” she said.