Proudly serving the community of Essex and surrounding areas.
Vol. 135
A LOOK INSIDE
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Issue No. 42
Tracey Ramsey defeats Conservative incumbent
Community gets update on flooding initiatives PAGE 3 _______________ WETRA kicks off Halloween PAGE 7 ________________ Essex Town Council Notes PAGE 8 ________________ Migration Fest celebrates 150 years of Jack Miner PAGE 12 ________________ Unifor Economist highlights concerns with TPP
PAGE 18 ________________ Tracey Ramsey (NDP) greets supporters at her election party after learning she won the Essex Riding seat in Ottawa.
Essex 73’s hit speed bump PAGE 27 ________________
Looking For A Good Home
“SIERRA” See Page 5 for adoption info.
by Sylene Argent “What a night,” Tracey Ramsey, Essex’s freshly elected NDP MP, said on Monday evening as a crowd of supporters celebrated her victory. The Riding of Essex voted for change on Monday, October 19. According to Elections Canada, the preliminary election results stated Ramsey defeated 11-year Conservative incumbent Jeff Watson by nearly 3500 votes in the Federal Election. Ramsey celebrated her victory with supporters at an NDP election
party held at St. John’s Hall in Woodslee. “I’m ecstatic, I’m very excited,” Ramsey said of the win. “The people of Essex have sent a clear message tonight that they wanted change,” Ramsey said to her supporters, adding they voted for a “more inclusive and better Canada. And I will fight for those values each and every day.” She said she owes a debt of gratitude to her great campaign team, and to many for their support. Her campaign team, she said,
never once let her down. She also thanked her family for their support during the election “It’s our hard work that brought us here,” she said. “I’m so proud of the campaign that we ran. We engaged more voters than we have done in a very long time.” “I have to say that every volunteer in our campaign owns a piece of this…this is what we can do as a collective when we fight together and push together for change,” Ramsey said, adding she is inspired by the commitment shown to her “to build the Canada
of our dreams.” On the campaign trail, she said her team talked to the young and seniors about things that mattered to them, like healthcare, job creation, and about seniors having dignity. “All of these things matter,” she said. “To the people of Essex I am deeply humbled by your support today, and very thankful. I will work every day, every ounce of energy I have will be to make this riding better and the lives of all of us who live here better,” she commented. Ramsey noted the federal Essex Riding seat was the last one in the region that was not orange. “We have successfully completed the orange wave,” Ramsey said. In Ottawa, she said she will definitely be there to keep the Liberal’s feet to the fire to make sure its representatives are doing what they committed to do, and be a part of some progressive change in Ottawa. Essex MPP Taras Natyshak joined in the celebration at Ramsey’s election party. “I’m incredibly proud of the campaign that Tracey ran, and really happy to see her win tonight. She deserved it. She stuck to the issues. She focused on the priorities of the Riding,” he said, adding that she knows that work starts immediately. “I’m really excited to work with her starting tomorrow morning as a team, and have that joint-focus on those issues,” he said.