SDSG – On the eve of his 39th birthday, voters in Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry have given Nolan Quinn a gift of a four year political journey at Queen’s Park.
Unofficial results with all polls reporting late Thursday night, had the Progressive Conservative MPP-elect with 57.5 per cent of the vote and was 14,310 votes ahead of his closest challenger – Liberal Kirsten Gardner.
“It was either going to be an exciting birthday or one that I was wiping off my knees and moving on,” Quinn joked.
The Cornwall businessman keeps the riding blue since it flipped from Liberal to Tory in 2011 and was asked by Cornwall Newswatch what it meant to continue that trend.
“It’s exciting but at the same time there’s pressure but I enjoy the pressure of it. I have big shoes to fill and I’m following a lot of great Tory politicians whether it’s Jim (McDonell), Guy (Lauzon), Eric (Duncan) as well…I’m pretty excited to represent the whole riding…I’m super excited to get out there,” Quinn told CNW.
While the 30-day provincial campaign was largely quiet, Quinn says he heard from a lot of people going door to door that “there was concerns, there were needs” for people coming out of the pandemic.
“I heard it loud and clear…obviously health care, education, mental health. Infrastructure is a big one. I’ve heard a lot about our infrastructure needs to be able to grow the way we want to,” Quinn said.
Coming into power in 2018, Quinn believes his Ford government didn’t get a chance to really push the agenda to end hallway health care before the pandemic hit. “We’re going to get really focused on ending that hallway health care and investing into our health care system.”
Asked if he would have done anything differently during the campaign, Quinn says he would have spent a little more time in Cornwall if it had been longer.
He says stepping away from his Dairy Queen business after working there for 24 years is going to be tough. “I have a team of managers here, I have five managers at the store, it’s in great hands. It’s going to be mentally challenging to walk away but at the same time I know the store’s in great hands.”
“It will be new but I’m up for the challenge of allowing them to run it and for me to jump into this role 110%. I’m going to do this seven days a week.”
