SCARBOROUGH-AGINCOURT: Wong keeps Scarborough-Agincourt seat for Liberals.
Former Scarborough-Agincourt MPP Gerry Phillips congratulates newly elected Liberal Soo Wong during party at the Queen Victoria's Pub Thursday. The riding has been held by the Liberals since Phillips was elected in 1987.
Staff photo/DAN PEARCE
Soo Wong kept the riding of Scarborough-Agincourt Liberal Thursday night with a convincing win over her opponents.
Successful in her first attempt to enter the Ontario Legislature, Wong will replace the retiring Gerry Phillips, a pillar of the provincial Liberals who constituents kept on as their MPP for a generation.
Facing a crush of reporters, Wong, a two-term public school trustee for the area, said she wouldn't comment on whether she now wants to be the province's next education minister.
The only relevant thing, she said, is voters had chosen her to represent Scarborough-Agincourt.
"That's what it's all about," she said, as supporters nearby chanted "Hard work works."
"What can I say? This morning I was making brownies with my students."
A registered nurse and a former member of Toronto's Board of Health, Wong had argued health care was the campaign's most important issue.
She donated her trustee salary and took a leave of absence from the board while campaigning. Still, she was criticized by some because she ran for MPP so soon after winning re-election to her school board post last fall.
Phillips, however, was also a public school board trustee before he jumped to provincial politics in 1987. Popular throughout his long tenure as MPP, he survived the Progressive Conservative tide of the 1990s and, as part of Dalton McGuinty's government, Phillips held several cabinet positions, often juggling multiple responsibilities.
His recent election victories in the riding were by healthy margins, including 11,000 votes over his nearest opponent, Tory John Del Grande, in 2007. This time, Wong's margin of victory was almost 4,700 votes - a lot less.
In an interview Thursday night at Wong's celebration party, Phillips said Wong worked hard every day of the campaign. "She ran a great campaign. She deserved to be elected."
Wong's celebrating supporters crowded into a Midland Avenue pub as regulars continued to play cards and watch the hockey game on television. At one table were students from Norman Bethune Collegiate, volunteers who said Wong had the character traits of a good MPP.
"I think they need to know about the community and Soo really understands the community," added Shirley Li, 15. "She's been working as our trustee for five years now, and that really gives her an advantage."
But positioned on the stage behind Wong's signs and clusters of red and white balloons, local musician Victor Shim said he feels there is "a disconnect" between provincial candidates and members of the public who, like himself, saw no reason to vote.
"A lot of people are skeptical," Shim said, doing a regular gig with a saxophone and a synthesizer. "Your pass some neighbourhoods, there's no signs."
Wong's rivals for the seat were first-time politicians.
They included Progressive Conservative candidate Liang Chen, an accountant and an associate dean at University of Toronto Scarborough, whom Phillips praised, calling her "a very credible candidate."
Chen said she thought the party did well in Scarborough-Agincourt based on the resources it had, and gained more voters. "We built a very strong team."
After meeting small business owners in local plazas over the last week, she said her party's message that such businesses need a tax cut is the right one.
"I don't know why people are still siding with the Liberals. That's really a disappointment."
New Democrat Paul Choi said representing his party has been a great experience and an honour.
"If not this time around," he said before results were in, "I think eventually the people of Scarborough-Agincourt will have me as an elected official."
Also running in the riding were Pauline Thompson of the Green Party, Priya Ahuja of the Paramount Canadians Party, Libertarian Doug McLarty and Sabrina Wall of the Freedom Party.