Former journalist and radio host Andrew Lawton has claimed the seat in the new boundary riding of Elgin-St. Thomas London South. Around 11:10 p.m Monday, CTV News declared the riding would stay Conservative blue, shortly after, Lawton arrived at the Columbus Club of St. Thomas to a rousing ovation. He received 50.2 per cent of the vote, defeating David Goodwin who received 43 per cent. “Every single day we knocked on thousands of doors,” says Lawton, saying he was able to tune out the negativity online surrounding his past by connecting with people in person. “When you show up at their door and say what matters to you? They have an answer. These are people that oftentimes don’t even know whether their issue is with the provincial government, the federal government, and the municipal government. They know that something’s not working, and I was really wanting to tell them what my solutions were and what I’m going to do for them if I get elected.” This is the eighth consecutive election this riding has been won by the Conservative Party. “I would have loved to have seen a Conservative majority government, but at the end of the day, my first priority is to serve the constituents and advocate for the platform that they voted for,” says Lawton. He says the issues is the previous government ignored rural communities, the agricultural sector and manufacturing. He says those are pivotal in this riding. He adds he will be moving into the riding with his wife now that he’s been elected. “This has always been a riding that I wanted to devote my heart and soul to serving,” says Lawton. “I plan to live in the riding. I plan to serve it, and I plan to do the best job I can”. He also thanked Karen Vecchio for her time serving as a three-term MP and her work with current mayor Joe Preston while he was the MP. “It was painfully obvious coming into this that there would be big shoes to fill, and I intend to work as hard as I can to ensure that that legacy of community representation is alive and well,” he says
