Disdain for Green Shift delivers Saint John to the Conservatives
Published Wednesday October 15th, 2008
Election Former Lord cabinet minister Rodney Weston defeats Grit Paul Zed
SAINT JOHN - Rodney Weston has snatched the federal Saint John seat out from under Liberal Paul Zed - barely.
The Conservative victor, a novice to the national stage, came out on top on Tuesday night in a close race, defeating Zed by about 754 votes.
Weston arrived at his Brunswick Square campaign headquarters shortly before 10:30 p.m. as some of his supporters - who numbered about 80 - walked out into the mall to greet him with cheers, applause and chants of "Rodney, Rodney".
Weston, his eyes misty with emotion, made the rounds of the room, hugging and kissing relatives, friends and staunch supporters.
Even though his chief contender, Paul Zed, had conceded just minutes before to a subdued crowd of supporters at his Waterloo Street campaign headquarters, Weston allowed that there were still polls that hadn't been counted -- many from Zed's hometown of Rothesay.
"It's been a difficult race, as you know," he said.
"We worked very hard at it, we didn't take anything for granted.
"It feels good at the point to be where we are. There are still some polls to come," he said about 10:40 p.m. while results were still coming in.
Just before 10:30 p.m., with only one poll from his Rothesay-area home accounted for, Zed conceded defeat.
"Its been a fascinating evening," he told his subdued supporters.
"This is a real exciting evening for all of us in Saint John. The tide goes in and the tide goes out.
"We have had an amazing four years."
Weston, meanwhile, says he laid out his intentions very clearly during the campaign.
While there were many similarities between Zed and Weston's platforms, their leaders in Ottawa are very different, something that was not lost on the Saint John riding, which encompasses 64,591 voters within 450 square kilometres.
Weston campaign promises include cutting taxes, money to clean up the city's water by leveraging against the city's pension fund to help build a new filtration plant, affordable housing, removing the Harbour Bridge tolls and debt, and getting approval for the Long Wharf project.
He has said that the Conservatives will not impose a carbon tax on electricity or oil, the two main heating sources for the poor in the Saint John area.
"We've laid out very clearly what my intentions are," he said.
As the polls began to come in at 9:05 p.m., it was a roller-coaster ride at both campaign headquarters.
The optimistic crowd in Zed's room early on were set to celebrate, gaining confidence as the results came in from Newfoundland. But as Saint John riding polls began trickling in, it became clear that it was going to be a long night.
"It's a real horse race, isn't it," said Zed's cousin, Peter, as it began to look like Paul was in for a rough ride.
Supporter Charlene Hayes led the crowd in cheers and Danny Jardine and Zed's brother, Gary, posted the poll-by-poll results but it gradually dawned on them that the night might not end in a victory celebration.
In the end, it was 112,63 votes for Weston; 10,509 for Zed; 4,964 for the NDP's Tony Mowery, 1,633 for Mike Richardson of the Green Party and 295 for Michael Moffat of the Marijuana Party.
It was Weston's first run at a federal seat; until now, his foray has been provincial politics. He sat in the provincial legislature from 1999-2003 and served as a cabinet minister and former premier Bernard Lord's chief of staff.
Zed, who's been Saint John's MP for four years, ran successful campaigns in 2004 and 2006 and has sat as a backbench and opposition MP. He was also elected to the House of Commons in 1993 in Fundy Royal, becoming the only Liberal to win the heavily-Conservative riding.
Before him, Conservative Elsie Wayne was Saint John's member of parliament for 11 years.
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