Downey ready to get to work

Doug Downey says it’s a big cleanup job he has to do, getting rid of 15 years of the legacy of Liberal rule. Beyond that, he’s not thinking of much else, certainly not a cabinet posting in a Doug Ford government.

Downey was part of Ford’s blue wave that engulfed the province of Ontario partly through the newly-created riding of Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte (BSOM) Thursday night.

The Orillia lawyer, appointed by Ford to carry Tory blue only days before the writ was officially dropped in April, outdistanced Liberal Jeff Kerk, New Democrat Dan Janssen, and Green Party hopeful Keenan Aylwin.

The former, larger Barrie riding from the 2014 vote was split in two for this election into BSOM and Barrie-Innisfil, of which Liberal Ann Hoggarth came into this campaign as the incumbent. (PC Andrea Khanjin defeated Hoggarth, Pekka Reinio of the NDP and Bonnie North of the Greens)

Surrounded by enthused supporters at a celebration at Sheba Shrine on John Street in Barrie, Downey told followers he was anxious to get to work, and to get the province back to work, rolling back gas taxes, stopping what he called the “out-of-control” spending of premiers Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne.

“It will be a challenge,” he told supporters, including long-time law partner and former federal cabinet minister Doug Lewis. It was Lewis, incidentally, who served in the Mulroney government in the 1980s and '90s, who introduced Downey as the new MPP for the riding.

Downey told BarrieToday he’d felt a buzz that indicated success in the six-week campaign, but only knew he had the race won when the TV screens in the Shrine Hall said so in big letters, immediately following word of a Tory majority at Queen’s Park. Both announcements came within about 15 to 20 minutes of the polls closing, to loud applause and shrieks from the mostly blue-clad volunteers.

The timing of the lawsuit against the incoming premier and his brother, by the widow of former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, could scarcely have been worse, coming while voters were marking their ballots in advance polls and only days before the general vote. The action by Renata Ford alleges and Doug and Randy Ford mismanaged the late mayor’s fortune and left Rob’s wife and kids with relatively little.

Downey does not foresee that being a concern in the early days of a Ford administration, adding he’s seen many files in his law practice involving conflict among families, and what is happening among the Fords is not anything unusual.  

The new MPP also admitted to some confusion over the sudden bailing last weekend of Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne, admitting she would not be premier after Thursday’s election. To Downey, there was a “lot of confusion” in his mind, as he speculates there would have been a lot of confusion in the hearts and souls of Liberal candidates. He could not see any strategic reason why a party leader who was proud of her record would not be out defending that record to the bitter end.

He refused, however, to indicate that her decision played any part in the election outcome, either.

There were numerous folks Downey took the opportunity to thank in his acceptance speech; of course, his wife and family, numerous employees in his law office in Orillia; besides Lewis, former federal cabinet minister Dr. Kellie Leitch and current MP Alex Nuttall, each of whom made their way to the hall to share in the glory.

Daughter Jane moved in on the conversation between Downey and the media throughout the evening, throwing her arms around her dad, who told her ,“I won!”