It took a while before Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge Liberal MP Dan Ruimy conceded victory to his Conservative challenger on Monday night. Ruimy remembered the 2015 election when numbers see-sawed back and forth and wanted to wait until advance polls were in before acknowledging defeat.
But eventually, the numbers, (with Dalton winning 19,501 votes to Ruimy’s 15,957 as of 11:30 p.m.) showed that Ruimy was not going to be re-elected to a second term.
After giving a concession speech to a small room of volunteers, Ruimy didn’t want to guess about what went wrong.
“You know what, I’m not even going to go there. We worked hard over the last four years. We have tons to show for it. As far as I’m concerned we did what we set out to do,” Ruimy said.
Dan Ruimy has just conceded victory to Marc Dalton in #pittmeadows #mapleridge @MapleRidgeNews "We should have won. We didn't," said Ruimy. pic.twitter.com/ZKQpJflZYZ
— phil melnychuk (@philmelny) October 22, 2019
Ruimy said that when he was first elected in 2015 he set out to focus on community engagement, “And we achieved that,” he said.
Ruimy though said it’s up to Dalton to decide if he wants to continue that approach.
"I did not get involved in the mud slinging. I don't believe in that," said #pittmeadows-mapleridge Liberal Dan Ruimy at campaign office. #mapleridge @MapleRidgeNews
"I believe u need to be able to work with whatever party's in place. That's how u get stuff done."— phil melnychuk (@philmelny) October 22, 2019
“So it only makes sense that the next person picks up the mantle and continues that because people are going to demand it,” he said.
“I’m proud of my team. I’m proud of the work we’ve done.”
Dalton said that $29 million for the widening of Lougheed Highway needs to go through. The money for transit, for early childhood education centre and the recently announced seniors home, has to continue. “Everybody’s talks about homelessness. If you want to stop it, we need to take a different approach,” Ruimy said.
“If I’m sad right now, I’m sad because there’s still so much more work to be done.”
He said he didn’t become MP as a partisan individual and he worked with both Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge councils and MLAs.
“Whoever is the next MP in this riding, they need to up their game. And we … can no longer stand for sub-par performance. Climate change is a big thing.”
The Liberal campaign office was subdued after p0lls closed and with only a handful of workers as results started to come in. Samosas and pizzas were the main food as volunteers stopped by to give best wishes.
There were no whoops or cheers as the results came showing Dalton in front the whole night.
Ruimy wouldn’t say if he’s considering politics either at the provincial or local level. “As for me personally, new beginnings have never been a challenge for me,” Ruimy said.
Right now, it’s regroup and just reflect.
He said many people have told him he’s the best MP they’ve had in the riding. “I did that by focusing on people, making phone calls for them,” rather than just give phone numbers.
The constituency office is more than a passport office, he added.
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