South Shore-St. Margarets NDP Candidate Olivia Dorey. Photo: Instagram
Despite failing to claim the riding of South Shore-St. Margarets NDP candidate Olivia Dorey is holding her head high.
She says there are many things she can look back on positively including her improvement on previous NDP results in the riding. “We managed to pick up close to 1,000 more votes than in 2019 all while voter turnout was down,” Dorey said.
Most people Dorey spoke with on the campaign had positive things to say about her and her party’s platform but ultimately she says it’s hard to pull voters away from the big two parties. “People want to vote for a winner and certainly South Shore- St. Margarets is a riding with long historical ties to the Liberals and Conservatives,” Dorey claims.
Overall Dorey says in spite of politics becoming more divisive and hostile in Canada she didn’t see much of it whilst on the trail, “Outside of one small incident every person I spoke with was respectful even if they didn’t agree with me.”
Dorey says in her first campaign she learned a lot, most notably she says shes gained an appreciation for all the work that goes into a campaign and she thanked her team for all of their efforts.
She isn’t sure if she will run in the next federal election as she says a lot can change between now and when the next election begins. She does still plan to continue work advocating for issues that are important to her and her community.
One thing she would like to see before the next election is electoral reform as she feels the current system only stands to benefit those already in power. She recognizes that it’s unlikely to happen under a Trudeau government despite promises from them to do so as they are arguably the biggest benefactors of the first past the post system.
