When Simcoe-Grey Liberal candidate Bren Munro looks back on her 33-day campaign, she does so with pride.
“I think COVID has worn people out,” Munro told CollingwoodToday.ca at her election party in Creemore late Monday night. “They’re quick to anger. Lifestyles have been turned upside down.”
As of this writing, Conservative incumbent MP Terry Dowdall had won the riding with 45 per cent of the vote with 167 of 237 polls reporting results.
“It’s disappointing. I had a really great team who worked so hard. Congratulations to the winner,” she said.
The Liberals under Justin Trudeau are slated to form another minority government. Although the outcome is the same, Munro says she feels it was the right choice to call an election so Canadians could decide for themselves how they wanted to be led out of the pandemic.
“I’m happy we’re running the government. We have really good policy writers, but it can be hard to push things through. We write policies and programs that are good for people,” she said.
Munro says she’s happy with the way she’s run her campaign.
“We’ve done a lot of things, and we’ve done them right. We’ve not destroyed anybody else’s signs. We’ve operated with self-respect, self-reliance and respect for others and we won’t waver from that,” she said.
The challenges of running a federal election campaign were unique this time around due to COVID-19.
“I had to sterilize my pen with Clorox wipes from house to house,” said Munro, with a laugh. “I couldn’t have town halls, rallies or fundraisers. Unfortunately, there weren’t any debates. I love debating. I could argue all day long.”
Growing anger from a small subset of the population followed Trudeau along his campaign trail, however Munro said she was lucky to not experience protests during her own campaign.
“This is new territory – the stone flinging. That’s new. Swastikas on signs? Also new,” said Munro.
