Election coverage: We brought issues to election

Rev. Terry O'Connor admits his run at the Nipissing riding appeared to be a longshot.

But as the New Democratic Party candidate got more involved in the Ontario election campaign, he started having second thoughts.

"I don't think it was such a longshot. I had two goals in running. One was the possibility of winning and going to Queen's Park to make a difference," O'Connor said.

But his second goal had much more purpose.

"I wanted to raise issues of poverty, and homelessness, and hunger and shelter, things like that, and that's really happened," O'Connor said Thursday night from his King Street campaign headquarters.

O'Connor said no other party aside from the NDP "had debated the issues."

"We have," he said.

And although O'Connor came in a distant third to new Nipissing MPP Monique Smith, of the Liberals, he tallied 2,595 votes, almost 50 per cent more than NDP candidate Wendy Young did in the 2002 byelection.

Does his showing mean he'll be asked to carry the orange banner in the next provincial election?

"Let's get this election over with first," he said, "before we even think about the future."