McDonald says voters will make the right decision

Tory MPP Al McDonald believes it could be déjà vu all over again when Nipissing voters go to the polls in today’s provincial election.

McDonald edged out Liberal George Maroosis by 19 votes in a recount, to win the seat former Premier Mike Harris vacated upon retiring from politics.

The main contender this time around is Monique Smith, who will replace McDonald if the widely anticipated Liberal sweep sweeps through Northern Ontario.

But locally polled numbers show a tight race almost too close to call, raising the spectre of a second consecutive recount, something McDonald doesn’t savour particularly if he’s on the business end of it.

“For one elected official to go through that kind of race and then have it come down to that 16 months later, you feel it in your soul,” McDonald said.

“Some of that stuff is out of my control provincially, and if they make that decision really, truly, there’s nothing that I could possibly have done.”

Still, McDonald said, there’s always hope, although he was somewhat cryptic for whom.

“I believe the voters of Nipissing will make the right decision on the best candidate they believe should represent them. I mean that’s what elections are all about,” McDonald said.

“It’s always my hope they’ll choose me but I believe they’ll make the right decision.”

That decision though, says Toronto political analyst Graham Murray, will likely fall in Smith's favour.

"Given his paper-thin 2002 byelection margin, McDonald has to be considered as perching on his party's most vulnerable seat," said Murray, the publisher of Inside Queen's Park.

McDonald says win or lose, he's pleased he ran a clean campaign, particularly when some of his signs were defaced during the run-up to the vote.

“It’s not my style to do otherwise. I’ve always believed that if I had nothing positive to say, then not to say anything at all” McDonald said.

“ I’ve always been a firm believer of communicating what I wanted to do for people, and I just try to stay at that level. I don’t think it would have served anybody by getting down in the trenches and throwing mud.”

If Smith does win, McDonald says he will leave Queen’s Park “proud of everything I’ve done.”

“I gave my commitment to the people of Nipissing that I’d work hard and I feel good that I’ve kept that commitment,” McDonald said.

“I’ve always believed in giving back and if things don’t turn out my way Thursday I’ll just move on.”

And he'll move on a wiser and more mature man, McDonald said.

"You learn about life in probably one of the most difficult places to make a living in in the world," McDonald said, "and that’s the political arena, where you're out in front of everybody, where you open yourself up to criticism and personal attacks, but it’s probably taught me how to look after myself. It really did."

But politics would still remain in his blood, McDonald said.

“The will to serve is very contagious,” McDonald said, “and I think anybody would miss it, once they’ve been in it.”