GODERICH – The Ben Lobb campaign and supporters gathered at the Goderich Sunset Golf Club to take in the results of the 2021 federal election, which named Lobb as the Huron-Bruce MP for a fifth straight term.
As of Tuesday morning, Lobb had received 30,373 votes – 51 per cent of the total ballots cast in Huron-Bruce – more than double that Liberal candidate James Rice, who finished second in the voting.
“I thank everybody, and I know everybody doesn’t vote for me but I always try to do my best for everybody and I will continue to do that,” Lobb said.
For Lobb, it is back to work pushing the needs of rural Canada to the forefront of the federal government. He said his priorities are improving infrastructure and rural broadband.
“The needs of rural Ontario are still the same as they were yesterday and as they will be tomorrow,” Lobb said. “Our infrastructure will still be needed whether that be water towers, sewers or whatever it is, we need our fair share in rural Canada. As well as our need for rural broadband … Those are just some of the priorities I will try to continue to serve the community of Huron-Bruce as best I can.”
On the national stage, Lobb said he will be fighting for economic recovery which has many facets.
“All the major parties had it in their platform that we need to get one million people back to work,” Lobb said. “That has to be a priority. Everybody knows the shortages we have seen in the service industry and the labour shortage is really across the board. We have one million people out there that we need to get back to work. We need to incentivize employers to get them back to work and in addition to that we need to provide safe working spaces.”
He said a rising virus cases could risk further economic downfall.
“We may be in the early days of the fourth wave, if we can do anything in Canada but especially in the province of Ontario to keep that as low as possible and keep the ICU bed numbers low that will be a huge victory and that will definitely help our economy in 2022,” Lobb said.
He said a relatively new topic for the federal government is housing, but it is definitely a priority.
“In a debate 10 years ago, we would have never heard about (housing), but that is one of the top issues,” Lobb said. “Whether a young couple can afford their first house or whether it is a retired couple looking to find a smaller place to downsize or rent, or just a new graduate looking to rent a decent place to live and work in the same community, those are all challenges that everyone is facing now.”
Lobb said one thing that has united people in this riding is the opinion that the timing of this federal election was bad.
“It didn’t matter what your political stripes were, we knocked on a lot of doors and we heard the same thing across the board, the timing was very bad,” Lobb said. “The timing was opportunistic, the polls looked like it might bring a liberal majority government … It looks like the Prime Minister didn’t get as much as he thought in August when he called this election.”
Lobb added that he believes that Justin Trudeau will have a tough first caucus meeting.
“It was not the result he was looking for … he will have a lot of answer for, as well as for calling the election,” Lobb said.
