Where were you when the votes were being counted?

federal election 2019By Pepper Parr

October 22nd, 2019

BURLINGTON, ON

 

Some people made watching the election results come in an event. There were groups of Canadians around the world gathering to watch Facebook pages where the CBC was streaming the results live.

Ward 6 city councillor Bentivegna managed to coax a CBC reporter to his home where friends and family got together to eat and talk and analyze what they were seeing.  There was Angelo and his family on national TV.

Each of the campaigns met once the polls closed and waited for the results.

The Karina Gould Liberals celebrated at Emma’s Back Porch.

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Political columnist Ray Rivers keeping an eye on proof reader Jan Mowbray and Publisher Pepper Parr. Photo credit: Jean Rivers

The Gazette editorial team had to both watch the result play out and think how they were going to cover each of the three campaigns that were taking place in Burlington – the city is covered by three different ridings. One riding, Burlington, is just the city; Milton includes the northern part of the city while Oakville North Burlington includes both the city of Burlington and the Town of Oakville.

The television networks focus on the bigger picture, offering glimpses of what is taking place in each of the ridings.

The CBC decision desk announced that Justin Trudeau was going to be the Prime Minister, then added later that he would have just a minority of the votes that were Liberal – which meant cozying up with one of the other political parties.

CBC did an outstanding job on both the analysis and the graphics that were available to the viewers.
The talent gathered around the television studio was impressive. Peter Mansbidge was there sitting beside Bob Rae – both men had great insights into what had taken place in the past.

The At Issue Team was on hand with Chantel Hebert providing an inside look at might be expected from Quebec. Turned out we shouldn’t expect all that much from the BLOC party. They made it very clear they were in Ottawa to protect the interest of Quebeckers – the federation wasn’t of all that much interest to them.

The people who write for and put the Gazette together were both viewers and journalists – we were both watching, taking it all in and deciding how we wanted to cover the win in each of the three ridings that include parts of Burlington.

Earlier in the day I predicted what the election results would be. A loyal but critical Gazette reader sent me a note saying: “Remind me please in January not to follow and bet on your Super Bowl tip. One for three in your election predictions!”  And that is why you never see me at a race track.

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Political columnist Ray Rivers reacting to the news that Jodi Wilson Raybould had been elected in British Columbia. Photo credit: Jean Rivers

We decided to have some fun and created a Burlington Gazette Mountsberg Bureau and argued the merits of each of the wins and losses across the country as the results rolled in.

I thought the Jodi Wilson Raybould win was great; Rivers didn’t share my enthusiasm. He thought the SNC-Lavalin issue was off the table completely and on that he might be right; the BLOC doesn’t want to be part of that one. I still think the Prime Minister mis-handled that problem.

We all agreed that Prime Minister Trudeau may not have had all that much interest in changing the way the votes are counted. Jagmeet Singh is in the House ready to ensure that the change gets made.

Interesting times ahead.

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4 comments to Where were you when the votes were being counted?

  • Mike Garrett

    “Ward 6 city councillor managed to coax a CBC reporter to his home ”
    Unlike anyone from the ‘editorial team’ I was actually present for this friendly gathering and can assure you no one was ‘coaxed’. Unless of course you have actual information to back up such a statement?

  • Joe Gaetan

    Watched it to the bitter end, the highlight was watching Trudeau preempt Sheers concession speech. Thank goodness for the fast forward button. I am unbelievably pleased that Jody Wilson Raybould won her seat. The JWR vote, was a vote for ethics, a teachable moment for Ontario voters. I think it is entirely possible that JWR’s vote could be the one that sinks or saves this minority government, just like Chuck Cadman (R.I.P) did in 2005. Stay tuned, but not to CBC.

  • Carol Gottlob

    Congratulations! Nice to see a proof reader on the team.

  • Phillip Wooster

    Pepper,
    An interesting piece on journalists following the election (I’m just about analyzed out!). Thanks for the read.