‘Moved the needle’: Liberal candidate LJ Edmonds reflects on PC victory in Leeds, Grenville, Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes

Following Thursday night’s provincial election, Brockvilleist spoke with Liberal Party candidate and runner-up Lorna Jean (LJ) Edmonds as she reflected upon her campaign, the election results, and her concerns for the future of the riding. While she didn’t get the victory she was hoping for, Edmonds is happy to see an increase in voter turnout in her riding and believes she was able to “move the needle.”

Clark collected 25,107 votes (54.94 per cent) by the time 100 per cent of polls were reporting on the evening of Thursday, Feb. 27. He was followed by Edmonds with 12,392 votes (27.12 per cent). In the 2022 election, then-Liberal candidate Josh Bennett took 18 per cent of the vote to Clark’s 58 per cent.

Edmonds shared, “​​I was a huge advocate to get into all the newspapers and ads and TV and my social media encouraging people to get out to vote so we know what you’re thinking, and we did that. So I think you have to look at it in the bigger picture. And I’m just really happy I made an impact, and that’s what you do in politics. Your job is to get people out to exercise their democratic voice.”

Edmonds is optimistic about the impact she made during her campaign, but she remains apprehensive about the end results. “I’m a bit concerned that we won’t see much because I don’t believe that Doug Ford supports rural Ontario…We have a pretty serious road ahead of us because we are in not great shape when it comes to health care, education, social services and municipal infrastructure.”

Edmonds noticed a large increase during her campaign in constituents being actively vocal about the issues in their riding from previous years. 

“If I go from 2022 to now, nobody talked about any issues in 2022. This time door knocking, whether it was conservatives or NDP or liberals, they were so concerned about their health care.”

She continued, “I think the parallel to that, which is above and beyond Steve Clark, was their fear about Trump and this false sense of security that Doug Ford created in his message of ‘protect Ontario.’ I just think that that was a very dangerous road to play when you’re a politician, to create this feeling that ‘he’s got us, he’s got our back’. And in this sort of Captain Canada strategy.” 

Edmonds believed that what may have impacted the efficacy of her campaign the most was the lack of time and exposure she had in comparison to more seasoned politicians.

“Bonnie was a new person in many respects, and I was a new person, and maybe I just didn’t have enough time right to really get my name out. I think objectively speaking, my biggest hindrance was that people didn’t know me because the people who did know me voted for me. We just didn’t have the bandwidth to do the kind of things that needed to be done.”

With this recent election under her belt and a growing number of followers and supporters online, Edmonds is ready to carry on and keep the momentum going.

“I am super motivated to keep the conversation going and to keep Steve Clark accountable. I’m going to be part of that community that’s going to say, ‘Okay, you said you’re going to do this stuff…Now I want to say, well, okay, you said you were going to fix it now, so let’s see what you can do.”

Edmonds is grateful for everyone in the riding who came out to vote and placed their support for her.

“We’ve shown Steve Clark that we’ve moved the needle and we increased the numbers in a significant way.  I think that’s worth taking note. I’m really grateful for the support I received.”