HALIBURTON, ON – It was a bitter/sweet loss for Liberal candidate Judi Forbes, but she isn’t ruling out returning in four years.
Forbes received 16,839 votes in the Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock riding, tallying 25 per cent support. She was runner up to Conservative candidate Jamie Schmale by just over 15,000 total votes.
It was Forbes’ first time running at the federal level and she knew it would be an uphill battle.
“This riding has been Conservative for years,” Forbes said. “I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy riding to get. I thought it was doable though. We lost last time by 8,000 votes so we felt if we could get another 4,000, we could do it. Like with everything I do, I was absolutely prepared to work hard. ”
Forbes said while her team was disappointed with local results, they were happy that Justin Trudeau stayed in office at the top.
She added it is still a little early to say whether she will be running again in 2023, but Forbes is open to the idea.
“I’d be interested in running again,” Forbes said. “I found the experience to be hugely rewarding. The people that I talked with, the challenges some folks had and the absolute delight I had in some programs the Liberals started, really made the whole thing worthwhile for me.”
Forbes added that she was lucky to have the team she did. They were described as dedicated, hardworking people who she hopes will continue on in politics. Forbes said she became good friends with the whole team and plans on keeping in touch.
The Liberal candidate said hindsight is always 20/20 after losses, but when it comes to hard work, there wasn’t much more her team could have done.
“Every campaign could always use more volunteers and more money,” Forbes said. “We started out with a fair amount of dollars in the bank, but as I learned, it takes a lot of money to run a successful campaign. That’s one place I think we fell short.”
Forbes said her biggest disappointment is that the Haliburton area doesn’t have a Liberal representative in the government leading the country.
“I really felt like we needed a voice in Ottawa and we haven’t had that this past year,” Forbes said. “Even in the years before, we haven’t had that and I was really willing to work hard for it.”