focus f OCU Saturday, June 7,1997, page 7 The Up "wake- call" Judi Longfield started out as a high school student council president. Now she's an MP and maybe, just maybe, headed for cabinet. By MIKE KOWALSKI Free Press Staff Writer Come the next election, Whitby's new Member of Parliament wants to be known as someone who never took her job or her constituents for granted. Although conceding that not every- one will agree with her politically, Judi Longfield will be disappointed if resi- dents of Whitby-Ajax riding express displeasure with her performance for anything other than purely ideological reasons. "I would hope that at the end of four years people will say that she gaveus fair, honest representation...that she listened and did her homework," said the soon-to-be former Whitby council- lor. However, long before she even begins to think that far ahead, the west ward representative intends to savour the thrill of this week's victery as she pre- pares to take on new responsibilities. "I'm still not used to it," said Long- field of her commanding win last Monday. Even though she received nearly twice as many votes as her closest chal- lenger, Reform Party candidate Bill Serjeantson, the veteran Liberal party organizer claimed she had no inkling that the outcome was never in question. "I felt cautiously optimistic, but be- cause I've been at it for so many years, I know that you can't coast or take anything for granted," she said. "Even though the undecided (voters) were not overly high, the 'choose not to tell' was high." While she was still waiting to hear from Prime Minister Jean Chretien as of Wednesday afternoon - "he could be one of the 50 messages still on my answering machine, I haven't been home much" - Longfield had no doubt that she will be speaking with the prime minister prior to next Monday's initial meeting of the new Liberal caucus. But un.til then, Longfield may be re- ceiving more calls similar to those she received from her Grade 1 teacher and the mayor of her northern Ontario hometown of Timmins. "The Timmins paper did a lengthy article on me when I ran. Vic Powers, the mayor of Timmins, was my guid- ance counselor when I was president of the student council." In addition to hearing from people from her childhood past, Longfield has also received congratulatory messages from some in her recent past. "Dalton McGuinty's mom is from Timmins," said Longfield, who man- aged the Ottawa MPP's successful campaign for the leadership of the On- tario Liberal Party earlier this year, "her family has been calling." Reflecting on the results of an elec- tion which many Canadians felt was premature, Longfield admitted that the country has become more "region- alized" and that her party's loss of 22 "(Chretien) could be one of the 50 messages still on my answering machine, I haven't been home much" seats from the 1993 election should serve as a "wake up call" to the government. "I think it will be a little easier the next four years," she said. "The deficit reduction target is being met and we can look at what sets us apart from the parties (Reform and Progressive Conservative) on the right." Free Press photo by Mark Reesor Judi Longfield is congratulated by Tory candidate Frank Snyder Although willing to tackle any as- signment that the prime minister may give her, Longfield would prefer that it be one that combines both ber munici- pal experience and ber knowledge of how the provincial government works. (Prior to seeking public office in her own right in 1991, Longfield was ex- ecutive assistant to former Durham Centre' MPP Allan Furlong. The Os- hawa lawyer repaid his former em- ployee in kind by serving as Longfield's campaign manager this time around.) "What has always interested me is the relationship between the federal, provincial and municipal govern- ments," said Longfield. "From the federal perspëctive we have to have people there to constantly remind them that when they make de- cisions it effects someone else," she said. "Whether its a ministry or a stand- ing committee I don't know, but I hope there's a vehicle where I can take on this role." Stressing that the days are "long gone" when an MP can reward his or her constituents with the promise of a government project or two, Longfield said she intends to make it clear to her Area ridings part of Liberal s By MIKE KOWALSKI Free Press Staff Writer A Liberal avalanche enveloped Durham Region on Monday and buried everything in sight. As they did in all but two of Ontario's 103 ridings, Liberal candidates captured all four ridings which take in most of Dur- ham Region. Town councillor Judi Longfield col- lected almost 48 per cent of the vote to be- come the first Member of Parliament for the newly created riding of Whitby-Ajax. From the moment results of the first poll were posted in Longfield's Dundas Street campaign office shortly before 10 p.m., the six-year-veteran of Whitby's mu- nicipal wars was never headed. Longfield's total of 23,541 votes was nearly double that of runnerup Bill Ser- jeantson of the Reform Party. In fact, the only real suspense of the evening was whether Serjeantson would finish ahead of Progressive Conservative candidate Frank Snyder. In the end, Ser- jeantson's total of 11,951 votes was about 1,800 more than Synder's final tally. New Democrat Karen Dolan and Robert Radford of the Canadian Action Party rounded out the field with 3,354 and 394 votes respectively. Whitby's two former MPs, Dan McTea- gue and Alex Shepherd had little difficulty in their re-election bids. McTeague, whose Ontario riding disap- peared under redistribution, swamped his nearest challenger, Tory Leanne Lewis, by almost 12,000 votes and will represent Pickering-Ajax-Uxbridge riding in the new Parliament. Shepherd, who previously represented Whitby residents north of Taunton Road, retained his mixed urban-rural riding of colleagues in Ottawa that Durham Re- gion and its member municipalities have an identity all their own. "We're caught in the 905-GTA belt," she bemoaned. "We're lumped in with Mississauga and Brampton, but we're not Missis- sauga or Brampton. We're different. "If I can bring people through here, they'll see that Pickering, Ajax, Whitby and Oshawa are uniquely different." As for ber campaign pledge to put the interests of her constituents first, Longfield said "I can't imagine any in- cident where I would vote against the government on a non-confidence mo- tion." However, like Whitby's two previous, but now neighbouring MPs, Dan McTeague and Alex Shepherd, Long- field has no qualms about bucking her own party if, and when, the need arises. "I'm hoping there will be fewer is- sues where we tend to polarize groups," she said. "You have to be careful that it's just not a small, vocal minority that you're listening to." weep Durham by finishing almost 7,000 votes ahead of his closest competitor, Ian Smyth of the Reform Party. An expected challenge from Tory Sam Cureatz never materialized as the former Durham East MPP trailed Smyth by 4,000 votes. Oshawa riding MP Ivan Grose com- pleted the Liberals' Durham Region sweep by defeating Reform Party candi- date Andrew Davies by almost 4,000 votes. In what many observers thought would be a close three-way fight, turned out in- stead to be a fairly comfortable win for Grose as veteran Oshawa councillor Brian Nicholson of the NDP was never a factor. Nicholson trailed Davies by roughly 4,500 votes and barely held onto third place ahead of PC candidate Alan Hayes.