His first run at federal politics didn’t go as planned for Mark King, People’s Party of Canada candidate for the Nipissing-Timiskaming riding.
King finished dead last behind the Green Party in Monday's vote.
Liberal incumbent Anthony Rota was re-elected.
“To be honest with you, it hurts me to my core quite frankly. I thought there was really some great policies that were there. They made tons of sense, but obviously the electorate didn’t agree with that and I will have to move on myself,” said King.
“I had so many great people supporting me, and I definitely feel sad right now. I feel sad for them because they had such high hopes. They were really solidly behind me. That’s a tough pill to swallow.”
King said he enjoyed the election process, confident going in that he would have a good showing.
“I thought it was going to be close, but obviously it wasn’t close. In retrospect, I don’t think I would have done anything differently. I still feel those core values that we brought to the public were the right ones based on timing,” said King.
The PPC candidate called his run at federal politics “an incredible ride.”
“We’ve been talking about it over the past couple of days, realizing we’ve been in some sort of election mode since May really. We were dealing with the Conservative nomination at that particular point. All the curves and angles that we dealt with through that process has been substantial,” said King.
He was stripped of his nomination win following a controversy that a corporate credit card had been used to purchase several memberships, which King denies.
Watching results roll in with party faithful, King was shocked to hear PPC leader Maxime Bernier had lost in his own riding.
“I would say this is probably the end of it.”
King says a Liberal minority will have a “major impact” on “the whole structure of this entire country.”
“It will really signal something extremely difficult for the business community, “said King.
“There is absolutely no question in my mind, we will probably look at some sort of separation probably in the next six to eight months from western Canada. That will impact the way things unfold.”
King believes this election was Scheer’s to lose.
“Scheer should have won this with a majority, no question in my mind. He is going to be questioned specifically right across the country about his leadership ability,” said King who would not rule out another run.
“Without question, if Maxime came back and asked me, I would certainly consider another run.”
King will now return to his seat on city council, having taken a leave of absence to run in this election.
“I’ve been thinking about this whole process of what I’ve watched go on across the country, not only in the region. It appears that the general public wants to continue with high taxation. They don’t seem to want to worry about debt and I guess I’m going to have to maybe change the way I think at the municipal level.”
