Windsor-Tecumseh riding snapshot: Experienced candidates vying for votes
This is the second of three riding snapshots CBC Windsor will post this week. Tuesday, we looked at Windsor West. Thursday, we'll look at Essex.
The departure of a long-time incumbent in Windsor-Tecumseh has guaranteed that residents there will have a new MP representing them in Ottawa this fall.
The riding and its predecessor had been represented by New Democrat Joe Comartin for the past 15 years.
But Comartin did not run for re-election, leaving the door open for someone new to represent the riding.
Jo-Anne Gignac, a local city councillor, is the candidate for the Conservatives in Windsor-Tecumseh.
Gignac told CBC News that she's had experience advocating on behalf of the city as a councillor, something she would continue if elected as the riding's MP.
"I will be there, fighting for every dollar that we can get in this region," she said in an interview.
The Liberals are represented in Windsor-Tecumseh this election by Frank Schiller, who previously worked for the late Herb Gray — the former deputy prime minister under Jean Chrétien.
Schiller said that he'll take what he learned from his years in Ottawa to hit the ground running for Windsor-Tecumseh.
"This area has a proud tradition of being Liberal and people are ready for real change and that means turning the page on Stephen Harper and the Conservatives and the NDP here locally," he told CBC News in an interview.
The New Democrats, meanwhile, hope that Cheryl Hardcastle can take the baton from Comartin and once again carry the riding for the party.
Like Gignac, she'll already be well-known to voters in the riding, as she previously served as the deputy mayor of Tecumseh.
But she may also be getting a boost from the long-time incumbent who represented her party for the past decade and a half.
Hardcastle said she's been hearing good things from residents about the representation they had from Comartin.
"It's wonderful when I go to the doors and people know Joe," she said. "They respect him as a hard-working and diplomatic, genuinely caring representative. And I assure them I am going to continue that legacy and I'm looking forward to it."
The Windsor-Tecumseh seat is also being sought by David Momotiuk of the Green Party, as well as Marxist-Leninist candidate Laura Chesnik.
The people in Windsor-Tecumseh will learn who their next MP is on Oct. 19, when they and the rest of Canadians head to the polls on election day.
With files from the CBC's Laurence Martin