The Kenora riding remains blue as Eric Melillo is back as MP.
The incumbent picked up 42.1% support in Monday night’s federal election.
Melillo says he’s thankful to keep working and serving the region and adds he hopes to build on what he was able to accomplish in his first term on Parliament Hill.
“The fact that we’ve been able to work with the other parties and pass a lot of our opposition motions through. We’ve been able to able to hold the government to account on a lot of occasions. I hope we will continue to do that in this new parliament.
Melillo says he will continue to fight for this region and jobs in tourism, forestry, and mining.
He notes the national result wasn’t what they were looking.
“Justin Trudeau called this election searching for a majority and I think Canadians showed what they thought of that. They wanted another minority parliament. They want parliament to work together and work through the next stage of this pandemic. So, it’s obviously disappointing but we’re happy to hold the seats we have and we’re going to form a strong opposition.”
Melillo adds, “I thought we had a good message. A strong recovery plan that resonated with a lot of folks but obviously we fell just short in some key areas. So, we’ll be reflecting on that and having a lot of discussions in caucus on where we went wrong.”
Janine Seymour of the NDP held the early lead and finished second with 30.6% support.
Melillo says, “I had a great conversation with Janine already earlier this evening and she ran a great campaign. I think all the candidates here really had a good clean campaign, a good passionate exchange of the issues and I’m just thankful to all of them that put their names forward.”
The 23-year-old adds the end result is bittersweet as his party was looking to form government but he’s happy with his campaign and humbled to serve the riding once again.
Meantime, Janine Seymour says she’s proud of her campaign and learned a lot.
“My family, I mean the entire community, the whole riding of Kenora, I feel the love and support and it just kept me going over these five weeks of insanity really.”
One of the big stories in the Kenora riding for the 2021 federal election is reports that three remote First Nations couldn’t vote in-person yesterday.
Seymour reacted to the development in Pikangikum, Cat Lake and Poplar Hill.
“I feel deep sadness for the community because that just means that their voice didn’t matter. That’s the message that you got regardless of what was the intent or circumstances or anything. To get that message that you don’t even count must be so incredibly painful. My heart hurts for those communities.”
Seymour says mail-in voting doesn’t work as it takes roughly 15 days for mail to get into the community and another 15 days for it to get out.
She stresses she will continue to push the importance of an Indigenous vote and removing barriers in future elections.
Liberal candidate David Bruno finished third with 19.6% support.
Bruno says he has mixed feelings following his first run at federal politics.
“Why is it bittersweet? We started off with the adventure of gaining a majority and we’re right back to where we were before. I will continue to work with the government and that’s not going to go away, and my name has been plastered all over the region and it’s a new beginning, the phoenix rising.”
Bruno is referring to Canada’s new Digital Charter Bill, which he has been instrumental in drafting for the RCMP Cyber Crime Unit.
He says the federal election proved one thing.
“One thing that I noticed at the door, everywhere with every constituent, was ‘I didn’t want this election to happen’. And that was reflected quite clearly.”
Bruno admits it wasn’t the result his party was looking for, but stresses he was able to get his name out there.
“There was no time. I was nominated seconds before the writ dropped. It felt very rushed. My accomplishments with the government will never go away and I’m still going to work with them, and I really felt that it was a question of leadership in terms of the Liberal party. I mean quite frankly we went from a ten-point lead right back to where we were before. Almost zero change.”
Bruno says his first campaign was a valuable experience.
“Everybody comes from somewhere and even Eric (Melillo), the first run, nobody knew who he was either even though he was born in Kenora but there’s more to the riding then just Kenora isn’t there.”
Craig Martin from the People Party of Canada finished in fourth (6.4%) while Remi Rheault from the Green Party was fifth (1.4%).
Unofficial results:
Polls Reporting: 147 of 150 (98 %)
Party Candidate Votes Percent of Votes
Liberal David Bruno 4,807 19.6 %
People’s Party – PPC Craig Martin 1,558 6.4 %
Conservative Eric Melillo 10,316 42.1 %
Green Party Remi Rheault 347 1.4 %
NDP-New Democratic Party Janine Seymour 7,499 30.6 %
Total number of valid votes: 24,527
(With Files From Tim Davidson: Kenora)
