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Wilson goes from candidate to busing tables

Late results from Sunshine Coast give Reynolds third term as West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast MP

Blair Wilson seemed to have one of the biggest upsets in local political history in the bag.

There had not been a Liberal elected in the West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast area since Jack Davis in 1972, and in the 2000 election Conservative MP John Reynolds beat the Liberal candidate Ian McKay by more than 11,000 votes.

Despite the odds it appeared early Monday that Wilson had done it.

The result was so sensational a CBC television crew arrived early for an interview with him and prompted a minor victory speech.

Then the results from the last two polling stations in the West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast riding arrived.

And now instead of being a Liberal MP in Ottawa, Wilson will be "busing tables" at his new restaurant.

Wilson demanded a lot of televised election coverage on Monday night because until about 10.30 p.m. it appeared he was going to beat one of Canada’s most experienced and respected politicians.

Reynolds has been in and out of federal and provincial politics since 1972 and was the co-chairman of the Conservative’s campaign.

Many believed he would be one of Stephen Harper’s most senior ministers if not the Deputy Prime Minister had the Conservatives won enough seats to form the government.

What made matters more crucial was the fact that the election results were going the wrong way for the Conservatives, so they simply could not afford to lose a candidate such as Reynolds.

But more than three hours after the polls closed Monday evening, the polling results from Sechelt and Powell River arrived. Reynolds was suddenly safe and Wilson’s hopes were promptly dashed.

Wilson had won battles in polling booths across the riding, including Squamish, Whistler and most of West Vancouver, but the residents of Sechelt and Powell River remained unconvinced and gave the majority of their votes to the New Democrat and Conservative parties.

When that result was announced Wilson said he retreated outside to listen to his 12-year-old son Bo.

Wilson said it was a defining moment in his campaign to listen to his son read a victory speech he would never have the opportunity to read in public.

"I’m choking up here just thinking about it," admitted Wilson the day after the election.

Despite the loss, Wilson and his team, led by campaign manager Katrina Carroll, have been encouraged to "stick around" by several Liberal party heavyweights.

"This is the first time I’ve done this and the first time my campaign manager ever ran a campaign and we’re going up against 30 years of experience.

"But it’s about the people and we built our team with the right people," he said.

"I count it as a victory because we came from so far back to be right there.

"In fact my wife and I were on the Lions Gate Bridge at eight o’clock this morning with a thank you note written over the top of one of our 4x4’s and more people were honking and waving than two days ago before the election."

Wilson was jubilant the Liberals won more seats than any other party Monday, but like most other politicians, he did not expect the minority government to last much longer than 18 months.

"If I was fortunate enough to have won I probably would have spent the next 18 months flying back and forth trying to keep a coalition government together in Ottawa, and now I’m free to work directly with the people in this riding.

"Besides I’ve got a new restaurant (Wilson’s Steakhouse) that opens up in the next week and I’m going to be down there busing tables and making sure the bank accounts sure up."

While Wilson is running restaurants, Reynolds will be returning to Ottawa for his third term in office on July 4.

Reynolds said he was amused by Wilson’s premature "victory speech" but maintained that he knew he had won.

"The only thing I saw on television was Wilson’s victory speech and I sought of chuckled all the way through that because I had the figures and I knew I was going to win," said Reynolds.

"I got a call from CBC and they apologized for reporting that he had been elected."

Reynolds’ final margin of victory was more than 1,600 votes.

Reynolds spent a lot of time in this election campaigning in Ontario for his party. That left the door open for Wilson.

"I knew he (Wilson) would be a good campaigner and I know they put him there because they wanted to keep me at home.

"They didn’t want me in Ontario but my thoughts were if I lose, I lose, but I’ve got to help my party win seats in Ontario," Reynolds said.

"We won 24 seats (in Ontario), which was not as many as I would have liked but most of the ridings we won were ridings I was in and working on."

In the Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon riding, which is the riding Pemberton is in, there were no surprises, Conservative MP Chuck Strahl won by almost 15,000 votes.

If there was a surprise it was 21-year-old schoolteacher Aisha Coghlan.

Coghlan said prior to the election that she had no phone and no driver’s license and was going to contact her constituents by "writing letters".

The only formal information about there was on the Green Party’s Web site and she did hardly any campaigning whatsoever, yet Coghlan finished fourth in the riding.

In coming fourth she beat the leader of the Christian Heritage Party, Ron Gray, and Norm Siefken the experienced Marijuana Party candidate.