In defeat, the NDP candidate in the GTA riding of Pickering-Uxbridge offered her assistance to the elected Liberal.
The newly configured riding, northeast of Toronto, saw Liberal Jennifer O’Connell defeat encumbent Conservative Corneliu Chisu, by more than 4,700 votes, with 49 per cent of total balloting. NDP candidate Pamela Downward came in third with nearly 10 per cent of ballots, according to the CBC Canada Votes website.
However, in her loss she did not reflect negatively on her candidacy; instead Downward said offered assistance to new MP O’Connell.
“I will look forward to working with her on projects and things that come up in the future,” Downward said.
Downward, 51, a teacher in the Durham region, said she was grateful for her team’s efforts during the campaign.
“This was an amazing journey,” she said. “It was learning lots about myself and continuing to be engaged in the community, pushing myself to limits, possibly that I’ve never been before and realizing that this is a community that is engaged in politics and they care so much about their community.”
Downward explained why she felt her campaign did not succeed.
“We started off as a new riding and we didn’t start off with a lot of resources financially or man-power,” she said. “So through this election we’ve had the opportunity to build some resources, and we’ve been able to increase our volume by a tenfold, so I think we’re already on the way to looking forward to a next election.”
Downward said she could be persuaded to run again in the future and believed that with more personal growth her party might have a better chance in a future election.