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Home My WebLink AboutThe Huron Expositor, 1995-06-14, Page 1Saforth, Ontario, June 14 ,1995 - 75 cents plus G.S.T. COMPE'I ITIO A notocr, racer fro Walto no faces the pros in special race series. see page five. Conservatives win big in Huron County The final count was different and closer in Seaforth and immediate arca than it was elsewhere in Huron County in last Thursday's provincial election. The end result was a win for the Progressive Conser- vative Party and candidate Helen Johns carrying the Tory banner of hluc. The 41 -year-old business consultant from Exeter who was a rookie on the Ontario hustings almost doubled the count on her two main rivals in Huron, NDP incumbent Paul Klopp from the Zurich area and first -titre Liberal candidate John Jcwitt of Hullett Township. Voter turnout ,in Huron was slightly less than last time around in September 1990 whcn the NDP upset the heavily -favoured Liberals of David Peterson. Turnout was almost 70 per cent in this county last week, as opposed to approximately 71.5 per cern in 1990. The Liberals and Jewitt took three of five polls in Seaforth, outvoting the . PCs and Johns 413 to 368. Both leading can- didates got 105 votes in the advance poll. Klopp and the NDP finished third with 216 votes in Seaforth,' followed by the Family Coalition Party and candidate Phil Cornish with 48 votes. Kimbley Ainslie, an independent candidate running under the Reform Association of Ontario banner received five votes. All three polls in Eg- mondvillc went Conscrvativc, with Johns receiving 254 votes to Jcwitt's 188. Klopp finished in second spot at one Eg- mondvillc polling station, but the NDP was third in the vil- lage with 122 votes. The Family Coalition party finished with 29 votes in Egmondville and Ainslie received three. Police Chief back home Scaforth Police Chief Hal L'laus returned home Sunday .after heart surgery at London's University Hospital last Tucs- lay. Ile says the triplc-bypass operation was a success, though doctors discovered more damage than he thought. Claus, 55, says he .has been heartened by the many cards wnd visits he alas received from local well-wishers. How long his recovery will take is still up in the air. The local police chief's illness complicates staffing and such things as holiday schedules for the Seaforth Police Association. Seaforth is scheduled to switch to OPP policing October I and continued with a contract review with the provincial police force in a meeting last Wednesday. The problem of staffing was discussed in sub- committee at that meeting and the Seaforth Police Services Board may request the OPP supply an acting chief whcn it meets for its regular Junc lmccAtiii tonight (Wednesday) , INDEX Entertainment... page 16 Sports...page 10. Rec Preview... page 16. "Your community newspaper since 1860...serving Seaforth, Dublin, Hcnsall, Walton, Brussels and surrounding communities." 0 ELECTION '95 How did your poll vote during the election? Poll by poll results for all of Huron. see pages 3, 18. ;PORTS ,aforth inor Hoc Iurannus +? vereaux 5 one of op drafts n OHL. ee page 10. f Tory tide carries MPP with it PATRICK RAFTIS PHOTO GOOD NEWS - Helen Johns, and campaign manager Steve Sparling react to results of first local poll phoned in to campaign headquarters in Exeter Thursday night, showing Johns in the lead. Johns says people finally voted for, not against BY PATRICK RAFTIS SSP News Staff A pile of 52 bills on a desk told the story of Tory confi- dence in the campaign head- quarters of Huron PC candidate Helen Johns on election night, June 8. The bills were claimed at about 8:20 p.m. when televi- sion election coverage gave the official projection of a Conscr- vativc majority govcrnmcnt, thus ending the waiting for participants in John's campaign team's informal proclamation - time pool. A few minutes later, the telephone began to ring stead- ily, as poll after poll reported in with decisive local victories for Johns, a political neophyte, who runs a home -lased finan- cial services business from her Exeter home. "I believe people voted for something, not just against something, this time," said Johns, shortly after the televi- sion news team gave its official projection of the first Progress- ive Conscrvativc victory in Huron Riding in recent mem- ory. "They've given me a mandate to do the things we've been talking about." Thosc 'things' include cuts to government spending in areas such as welfare and public service payroll, cuts which Johns labelled among her first priorities, along with making sure Huron Ridings' concerns are voiced in the provincial legislature. "I want to sec Huron. County get the representation it needs to have a say in this govern- ment," said Johns, after being asked to prioritize the issues she was most eager to get to work on. "For me, it's the spending cuts. i want to make sure my boys have the opportunities for a future that i had, free of the deficit," she said. "IR the Ontario whcrc I grew up, there were all kinds of opportunities. 1 remember coming out of university and having 25 job offers. Now they sent out 5(X) r&sum6s and get nothing." in addition to being Huron's first Progressive Conservative MPP in over two decades, Johns is also the first female politician elected in the riding. She earned the Tory nomina- tion last November, over a field which included two for- mer county wardens (Tom Tomes and Howard Armstrong), on a promise to work hard and travel through- out the riding in an all-out effort to win it for the party. "I've worked hard," she reflected after the victory Thursday night. "We've been out there (on the campaign trail) from seven in the morning until 11 at night," she noted, adding that the local party "already had a strong organization in place," prior to her nomination victory. Johns' victory was part of a Tory tide which saw the PC party tum leader Mike Harris' "Common Sence Revolution" platform of combining tax cuts with government spending cuts into a majority government with 82 scats, compared to 30 for the second place Liberals, while the governing NDP fell from a majority position to just 17 scats. One independent candidate was also elected. In Huron, Johns garnered 12,845 voters, topping all but four of the 27 polls (including all advance polls as one) in the riding. Liberal candidate John Jewitt edged incumbent NDP MPP Paul Klopp for second place gathering 6,781 voters, to 6,501 for Klopp. Klopp, a Hay Township farmer and a veteran of three prior election campaigns, topped only one poll, in Zurich, whcrc he received 162 votes to 157 for Johns and 122 for Jcwitt. Jewitt, an employee of Champion Road Machinery in Godcrich led in two rural polls, Hullett and McKillop Town- ship, as well as the Town of Seaforth. Family Coalition candidate Phil Cornish captured 1,392 votes, while fledgling Reform Association of Ontario's local candidate, party leader Kimble Ainslie, received 222 votes. TTM CUMMING PHOTO PRIVATE MOMENT - MPP Paul Klopp and his wife Heather enjoy a dance amidst charts posting poll results and a television announcing provincial election results while at The Livery in Goderich on election night. MPP Paul Klopp defeated BY TIM CUMMING Expositor Editor The polls and the pundits had already predicted a wave of Conscrvativc blue in Ontario. NDP campaign workers, how- ever, thought incumbent MPP Paul Klopp could hold back the Tory tide in Huron. Unfortunately for the 38 - year -old farmer from RR 2 Zurich, voters had different ideas. The polls barely closed when the signs of a Conservative landslide were evident. The results had already been decided before most campaign workers arrived at the NDP celebration staged at The Liv- ery in Goderich. The provincial election had evolved from a Liberal coron- ation, to a horse racc, to a Conscrvativc landslide. Despite the flurry of activity leading up to the election the NDP recep- tion was a sedate affair. A Klopp supporter in a Tilley hat quietly read a newspaper while a television report in the background projected a Pro- gressive Conservative majority. 1995 ELECTION RESULTS FOR HURON 132 of 132 Polls Reported Paul Klopp NDP Helen Johns PC John Jewitt LIB Phil Cornish FCP Reform Assoc. Kimble Ainslie Eligible Voters: 40,404 turnout 6,927 13,344 7,008 1,418 207 The election results were often drowned out by the band which was doing sound checks on stage. In an example of unintended irony a band mem- ber sang these words from an Eagles tune: "I'm already gone..." The time was only 8:35 p.m. Some campaign workers discussed the results quietly, noting the world's economy has faced world-wide pressures. The Ontario electorate had replaced Rhodes scholar Bob Rae with the first post-war Premier without a university education. Some NDP sup- porters complained that Harris' campaign was policy by bum- per sticker. Klopp arrived with his fan ily, holding his daughter Heid' in his arms, accompanied 1 - his his wife Heather and son T. The band on stage, having changed from blue jeans into tuxedos, played Murray McLaughlin's 'Farmer's Song.' There were warm hugs for the young Huron MPP as he arrived. While he mustered a smile his wife, Heather, had tears in her eyes. "We gain back a great father and husband but unfortunately Huron has lost a hardworking MPP," she said to about 5f Klopp supporters. see Klopp, page 18 Election results by municipality AINSLIE CORNISH TURNBERRY 10 WINGHAM 14 HOWiCK 14 ASHFIELD 4 W. WAWANOSH 4 E. WAWANOSH 2 BLYTH 1 MORRIS 3 BRUSSELS 2 GREY 6 COLBORNE 10 HULLETT 0 McKILLOP 1 TWN. GODERiCH 32 TWP. GODERICH 11 CLINTON 13 BAYFiELD 0 STANLEY 5 SEAFORTH 5 TUCKERSMITH 16 HAY 8 ZURICH 1 HENSALL 4 STEPHEN 22 EXETER 8 USRORNE 2 ADVANCE 7 TOTAL JEWiTT JOHNS KLOPP 42 134 344 123 66 356 577 225 72 221 557 368 77 196 343 191 22 148 216 126 30 172 225 95 31. 140 246 92 56 179 389 147 17 102 294 131 53 141 406 155 50 234 542 279 96 299 281 115 39 229 213 99 74 788 1545 1160 109 280 615 340 100 492 498 331 14 84 252 164 32 178 391 227 48 413• 368 216 62 323 568 284 49 237 409 294 21 122 157 162 25 88 257 170 70 385 891 547 47 365 1292 373 21 127 369 160 65 456 708 356 207 1,418 7,008 13,344 6,927