Tassi wins Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas for Liberals

In what was seen as an open race at the start of the campaign, Liberal Filomena Tassi has claimed a strong victory in the newly created riding of Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas (HWAD). 

She will be part of a Liberal majority and is the first Liberal elected in Hamilton in almost a decade.

Together we're going to make great things happen.- Filomena Tassi, MP-elect for Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas

​Tassi was declared a winner by CBC about an hour after the polls closed. At about 10:30 p.m., she had just over 45 per cent of the popular vote. Conservative Vincent Samuel was next with about 29 per cent. NDP candidate Alex Johnstone was at 16 per cent.

The Greens' Peter Ormond was at 5.7 per cent.

A crowd of Tassi's family members, campaign team and supporters gathered at the Hamilton Air Force Club in Dundas, dancing and cheering as a band played "That's Amore" and "Celebrate Good Times" and poll results appeared on a projector — with riding after riding turning red.

The biggest cheers came as Tassi entered, flanked by MPP Ted McMeekin and the Liberal Party of Canada's Ontario director Tyler Banham.

"You have to know, this isn't the end, my friends," Tassi told the crowd.  "This is the beginning. If you thought you were engaged up till now, we are just starting. Together we're going to make great things happen."

Ted McMeekin, MPP for Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale introduced Tassi and said he's delighted to have "a partner" in the federal government.

He called Tassi the "biggest breath of fresh air in the House of Commons in 20 years". He led  supporters in a rendition of "It's a beautiful day in the neighbourhood." 

"You guys made history tonight," he said. 

And he suggested the outcome in the HWAD riding was an indictment of the Conservative campaign.

"Gone are the days when you can pander to fear," McMeekin said. "Gone are the days when you can pander to Islamophobia, or homophobia, or any other phobia. ... You know, democracy is wonderful. People will rise up and they'll say, we've had enough. And that's what they've done from coast to coast to coast today."

Tassi was a corporate lawyer for six years before becoming a chaplain at Bishop Tonnos Secondary School. She also served as a Catholic school board trustee and volunteered with numerous boards and agencies.

A 'bellwether riding'

The riding received international attention when insensitive comments Johnstone, a school board trustee, made years ago on Facebook about the Auschwitz death camp surfaced. The gaffe really took off when she told a columnist she didn't know what Auschwitz was. 

It wasn't the profile she wanted, but early in the campaign Johnstone correctly predicted the district would be "very much a bellwether riding." 

Monday night Johnstone tried to remain positive with a gathering of friends and volunteers gathered at Noah's Restaurant in Dundas. 

"The Liberals were in this very place four years ago, and we will rebuild," she said. "This is one election." 

She did not comment directly on the rough moments in her own campaign but said she's had moments especially in the past week of feeling "extremely grateful and extremely humbled." 

A 'feel-good reason for voting Liberal'

The newly created HWAD was a popular stop for party leaders during the campaign. The NDP's Tom Mulcair stopped in the riding in August and suggested the NDP leanings of the rest of Hamilton would carry over.

Liberal leader Justin Trudeau visited twice, once with former Prime Minister Jean Chretien, once last week during his party's ascendancy in polls across the province.

That change in fortunes for the Liberals province-wide played a bigger role in Tassi's win than Johnstone's misstep, said McMaster University political scientist Peter Graefe.

Graefe said left-leaning voters looking for an anything but Conservative choice may have been unhappy with the Liberals for their stance on issues like Bill C-51 or climate change, but saw participating in the Liberal rising tide as their best chance at changing the federal government.

Even still, "there are things that happened in the race that would've made it very difficult for a Johnstone win," Graefe said.

Tassi appeared even more attractive after Johnstone's fall, Graefe said — giving left-leaning west-end voters a "feel-good reason for voting Liberal." 

The race wasn't without scandal for the other candidates. Conservative Vincent Samuel attracted criticism with a flyer his fellow candidates said was fear-mongering. Tassi attracted questions for her stance against abortion. (Johnstone, for her part, visited Auschwitz with the Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies last week.)

The HWAD riding was created in 2012 after a review of federal election boundaries. It draws in parts of Hamilton Centre (an NDP stronghold), Hamilton Mountain (won for the NDP by Coun. Scott Duvall) and Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale (Conservative federally, Liberal provincially). The Oct. 19 election was its first time in action.