“I set the bar high and delivered results.”
That was the message that Jay Aspin delivered to his somber supporters after the polls showed clearly he was not going to be re-elected.
Aspin was philosophical in defeat, saying it was just one of those things that happens in politics.
“When winds of change are in the air they’re in the air, and the winds of change blew strong right across Canada tonight and that’s politics.
“I don’t think there’s anything I could have done differently. I am very proud of the record I ran, the four and a half years, we’ve accomplished a lot. I wanted to raise the bar and get results and that I did. I ran an excellent team, I complimented my team tonight, I think it’s the best campaign team I ever ran. We certainly had a lot of volunteers, upwards of 70 volunteers.”
Aspin said he was surprised at the size of the win by the Liberals, both nationally and locally, saying the parties were close for much of the election.
And he admitted he wasn’t hearing that apparent ground swell while he was campaigning in the riding.
“No we weren’t. We weren’t hearing a lot. It was just this quiet underlying phenomenon that you really couldn’t, at least we couldn’t predict it.”
Reflecting on his accomplishments, Aspin said he was proud of the funding he was able to bring to the riding, not only in aerospace and space, but the announcements that came from his work within Fednor and with the government itself.
“Every week I think I had an announcement. They were good announcements. I mended the rift with Fednor and we got a lot of Fednor money in here. So I’m proud of all my accomplishments. I think we had 205 announcements over the four and a half years. The government, the cabinet ministers, the Prime Minister, I had an excellent relationship with all of those people.”
As far as his next steps, Aspin says he simply has not decided yet.
“I’m gonna take a little time. This is actually the conclusion or the drawing to the conclusion of the fifth chapter in my life. I’m gonna open up a sixth chapter. I’m not sure what that’s going to be, we’ll take a little time and reflect and see what happens. I’m not in any real hurry.”
But he did say one thing: he has no regrets.
“I had an excellent team behind me and we had an excellent government and I’m very proud of it.”
