“It may be night, but it’s a new day for Steveston-Richmond East; it’s a new day for Richmond Centre; and it’s a new day for Canada, and this sounds good, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.”
This was how Richmond’s first ever Steveston-Richmond East Member of Parliament, Joe Peschisolido, began his victory speech at his campaign office packed with volunteers and supporters. (The election boundaries were recently redrawn to form the new riding.)
Peschisolido may have spoken too soon as far as Richmond Centre was concerned. Liberal Lawrence Woo was ahead in the polls at the time but ended up losing to incumbent Conservative MP Alice Wong.
Nevertheless, Steveston-Richmond Centre did seem to catch the Trudeau tide that swept the country Monday night.
While it looked like a tight race between Peschisolido and Conservative Kenny Chiu as early polls came in, Peschisolido took the lead and maintained it throughout, eventually winning with approximately 45 per cent of the votes (19, 486) against Chiu’s 38 per cent (16,630).
“I look at this room, and this is why we won. Every morning I got up, and every morning it got harder to get up, but I knew everyone in this room and others had my back. And tonight I say to you, thank you.
Peschisolido went on to thank numerous members of his campaign team, calling them to the front, hugging and kissing each one in turn.
He wrapped up by saying, “I’m honoured and humbled to be standing here as your member of parliament. I’m going to do my utmost to be the best member of party that, I was going to say Steveston-Richmond East has ever had, but it’s only had me.”
“You’ll set the bar,” called out one supporter.
“And I’ll set it high,” he responded.
“Let’s savour the moment,” he concluded, to the sound of Champaign corks popping. “Because tomorrow, the real work begins.”
After the speech, when asked what put him over the top, he credited his “phenomenal” team of volunteers and supporters and the campaign they ran.
Reaching out to all member of the “our diverse community” was also part of the winning formula, he said. Indeed, the crowd of supporters was remarkably ethnically diverse, with a large number from the indo Canadian community. Two women wearing the niqab pushed forward to get their pictures taken with him.
Finally, he said it was leader Justin Trudeau who inspired the wave of change.
This will be the second time the people of Richmond send Peschisolido, a lawyer by profession, to Ottawa. In the 2000 election, he ran as a Canadian Alliance candidate and defeated incumbent Liberal Raymond Chan, however in 2002 he crossed the floor to the Liberals. In that election, it was Chiu, as a president of the Alliance’s local riding association, who helped get Peschisolido elected.
Peschisolido ran again in the 2011 election in Richmond Centre, but lost to Conservative incumbent MP Alice Wong.
This year, Peschisolido overcame early infighting within his riding after nomination candidate Wendy Yuan complained she had been unjustly overlooked during the selection process. In fact, the entire riding association resigned en mass over the issue.
Chiu did not return calls by press time.
