I wasn't able to stick around for the results announcement but got the word of Freeland's victory from Twitter and later the media. Freeland and her crew of supporters are no doubt enjoying some beverages as they celebrate this nice victory. And I agree with what she reportedly told them: the hard work starts now.
I also want to congratulate runners-up Todd Ross and Diana Burke for their hard-fought campaigns. Depending on how this by-election goes, I'm hoping that both of them consider running again for the Liberals, perhaps in one of the new ridings that will be carved out of the existing Toronto Centre riding.
I look forward to working on the by-election campaign and knocking on doors to introduce Freeland to more residents of Toronto Centre and help communicate her message that we need to do more in this country to address income and economic inequality and to help ensure the middle class can once again thrive and succeed. As many of us in the middle class know too well, we continue to see our incomes stagnate or rise much slower than the cost of inflation. Stephen Harper's response to this?: raise our payroll taxes even more while giving big corporations tax cuts that don't need them.
I am thankful that Justin Trudeau and the Liberals are promising to focus on the needs of the middle class as we figure out how to get Canada's economy thriving again. I'll be working hard along with many others to elect Freeland to Ottawa so that she can be a part of that federal Liberal team as it develops those very policies to push Canada forward.
I should also congratulate Linda McQuaig, who was chosen this afternoon to carry the NDP banner in the upcoming by-election in Toronto Centre. We can delve more deeply into some of McQuaig's strange and extreme statements in the past on various issues at a later time.
But for today, we can simply look forward to an interesting contest as voters in Toronto Centre get an opportunity to send to Ottawa a thoughtful, brilliant, idealistic, energetic, international affairs expert in Chrystia Freeland who is running for politics for all the right reasons.
Below is a video put together by the Freeland campaign that played just before her speech this morning. You might recognize one of the speakers, I'm proud to say!