After Progressive Conservative candidate Chris Scott defeated New Democrat Lisa Vezeau-Allen by a razor thin margin of 118 votes to win the Sault Ste. Marie riding, SooToday reached out to candidates who ran for the lesser-known parties.
Joining Progressive Conservative candidate Scott, New Democrat Vezeau-Allen and Liberal Gurwinder Dusanjh in the contest for the riding of Sault Ste. Marie were New Blue Party candidate Arnold Heino, the Ontario Party’s Paul Frolich and the Green Party’s Jaycob Jacques.
“I was surprised by the response I got,” New Blue Party candidate Heino told SooToday in a phone interview after the polls closed Thursday.
The New Blue Party of Ontario has been described as a right-wing populist party.
“We were on Great Northern Road by Canadian Tire this week, and we had a lot of honks from horns from people driving by.
"The feedback was really, really good. We met with people at Cambrian Mall, we handed out flyers at grocery stores and other places, we went to retirement homes and the feedback was really good,” Heino said.
Heino, a Sault resident and semi-retired seasonal employee who works as a boat delivery person for a powersports store in Desbarats, said he ran for the New Blue Party because he’s done with what his party calls the overreach of the provincial and federal governments.
“I think a lot of people want to get back to the old conservative values of ‘we the people’ not ‘we the government’ and I think our politicians have forgotten that,” Heino said.
“What the federal government did with the lockdowns, when the government locked down our country and locked down small business, I mean, that was a bridge too far,” Heino said, disappointed that Ontario Premier Doug Ford supported the federal government’s lockdown policies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Heino is also the Peoples' Party of Canada candidate for Sault Ste. Marie and intends to run for that party in the next federal election to be held later this year.
Ontario Party candidate Paul Frolich, a Sault resident involved in property management, said he ran for MPP because he was weary of the mainstream Progressive Conservatives, Liberals and NDP.
The Ontario Party, like the New Blue Party, is also classified as a right-wing populist, socially conservative party.
“I'm not a big fan of Doug Ford nor that the 'Big Three' parties have turned our electoral process into a game of three-card monte.
"It's just a matter of time before the new smaller parties gain our footing and surpass the big three with integrity, credibility and hard work,” Frolich wrote in an email.
The Green Party’s political platform is based on environmentalism.
Its Sault candidate was Jaycob Jacques, a University of Ottawa student who is originally from Sudbury.
“Jaycob isn't available for media responses or appearances in this election,” the Green Party of Ontario wrote in an email.
Heino received 564 votes for New Blue, for 1.9 per cent of the vote.
Jacques received 421 votes for the Green Party, for 1.4 per cent of the vote.
The Ontario Party’s Frolich received 302 votes, for one per cent of the vote.