Reporter Christine Wood at Coast Reporter, our sister paper in Sechelt, spoke with outgoing Conservative MP for West Vancouver John Weston on election night. Here’s what he had to say about the campaign and his election night defeat.
Q: The vote didn’t go as hoped, what’s your analysis?
A: We’re disappointed both at the national results and the local ones, but there was a really strong sense of pride in the room when I gave my concession speech and it reflected the fact I think that we recognize people who voted for us knew precisely why they were voting.
You could almost say every vote had a name attached to it. It was pride, it was ability, it was courage, it was perseverance; there were really good things. What went along with that was knocking on 12,000 doors as my team did, and I did over 1,000 myself; we almost never encountered somebody who was unsatisfied with my personal service in the riding, so it was a great sense of pride.
We had a great team, a hard working team, and clearly we couldn’t overcome a national trend, which had a lot of people voting against things as opposed to voting for things.
We could see in our riding that people who didn’t vote for us were sometimes voting against something, not necessarily for something. Now at the same time, I’ve just come from Pam’s office.
I’ve congratulated her and I expect her to serve well and will again look forward to what Prime Minister Trudeau has for the country.
I’m doing something unprecedented in my experience, and a bit unorthodox. Usually when an MP is defeated or is succeeded by someone from a different party all files are shredded. I think that’s poor service and so we’re going to try to get consent from our constituents so that the files can be passed on to her and that she will continue to serve them well. I’ve told her that and I know that she will do her best.
I will certainly strive to continue to promote equality in our country. It’s something I believe is so important among all the different people in Canada, something I think that is an aspect worth striving for. It’s been a hallmark in my life and I’ll continue to do that.
Q: The campaign got aggressive. Do you think that helped or hurt?
A: I was consistent throughout and I always have been. I think you’re referring to the constructive criticism that I offered of Pam and in every case I made sure that anything we said, positive or negative, was held up to a three-part test. It had to be true, relevant and fair, and I’ve been consistent in that, and sometimes that may come across as being critical but as long as it’s true, relevant and fair, it fits what I think is an appropriate standard for discussion in the public square.
By the same account, you can be sure there were many criticisms that were levelled of me and I would like to think that they were also true, relevant and fair, although it wasn’t always the case.
Q: Is there anything you want to say to the constituents served here?
A: It’s been such a great honour to serve this wonderful riding. We have achieved great things, and I say “we.” The two private member’s bills, the third one adopted by the Conservative Party on abandoned vessels, will, I’m sure, succeed even without my being in parliament.
We had five private member’s bills, which is really unrivalled probably, and, again, that’s not just because I was an effective legislator or a passionate legislator but because we have passionate, committed people in this riding who work with their elected officials and therefore we accomplished those things plus the four things that were in Budget 2015.
This is a special and unique place and I love it, and it’s been an honour to serve it and I look forward to playing some other roles in the future and those are yet to be determined.
Q: What are your future plans?
A: I’ve been working on a book that I will now complete in the next month that’s on excellence in public service, and after that I can’t tell you. I need to step back and take stock.
