Joe Peschisolido was mulling over his future tonight after losing his Steveston-Richmond East to Conservative Party rival Kenny Chiu.
The Liberal Party MP was comfortably defeated by Chiu, who received 15,224 votes (42.4 Per cent), compared to Peschisolido’s 12,438 votes (34.7 per cent).
His campaign HQ might have been in the former Ice Level Sports hockey store in Ironwood Plaza, but there was no power play from Peschisolido on the night.
Trying to console his dispirited team and supporters, he told them to "not to be too sad. It just wasn't there tonight."
"The people are never wrong and they have spoken," said Peschisolido. "It's not the end of the world and we still have a Liberal government.
"But it's OK. There will be another day."
If he ran the campaign again, Peschisolido said he wouldn't do anything differently.
"We're very proud of the campaign we ran and we're very pleased that we have a Liberal government."
Asked to explain the significant turnaround, an approximate 14 per cent vote swing to Chiu from 2015, Peschisolido wasn't sure, adding that it's "too early to say."
"We haven't looked at the margin (of the defeat) yet. But the people have voted and the people are always right."
Asked if he had any thoughts on what might have went wrong in his campaign, Peschisolido said, "not right now."
He said he will just focus on "cleaning up some matters he has still do" in his now former role as an MP."
Peschisolido didn't rule out a comeback as a lawyer, his former profession before becoming an MP.
The NDP’s Jaeden Dela Torre received 5,434 and the Green Party’s Nicole Iaci got 2,339 votes. Independent candidate Ping Chan received 446 votes.
It would have been Peschisolido’s third term in Ottawa, having been elected in 2000, when he ran as a Canadian Alliance candidate, before crossing the floor to the Liberals in 2002.
In 2015, Peschisolido won the riding with 19,486 votes out of 43,225 votes (45.08 per cent), ahead of Chiu with 16,630 (38.47 per cent) votes. The NDP’s Scott Stewart was third with 5,248 (12.14 per cent) votes.
The Liberals have won a minority government.
