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PAGE.14, WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16,1987 Furlong wins Durham Centre He won the Durham Centre riding because his election team "outhustled, outworked and out- manoeuvred, the opposition," a delighted Allan Furlong told 350 supporters on hand at his victory celebration last Thursday night. Furlong was one of 95 Liberals elected to give David Peterson's Liberals .a huge majority, Bob Rae's New Democrats make the of- ficial opposition and leave Larry Grossman's Conservatives devastated and leaderless. Grossman resigned as leader that night. Poll results started trickling into Heydenshore Pavilion at 8:20 p.m., the first few showing Furlong leading, a trend that was to con- tinue all night. By 9:30 p.m., Furlong's suppor- ters knew they had won and awaited the man who is the first Liberal to be elected in Durham Region in 50 years. A second Liberal was also elected in Durham when Norah Stoner defeated in- cumbent George Ashe in Durham West. The wait continued until well past 10 p.m. when Furlong arrived with his family, He did not disappoint the throng when he began with "Tonight is a hell of a night." Furlong said he was "flab- bergasted" with his win and the Liberal majority. "I would like to compliment Bail (Conservative candidate Stephanie Bail) and Kelly (NDP candidate Sarah Kelly). Both ran a good and fair campaign and I look forward to meeting them again four or five years from now." Furlong won with 12,885 votes. Kelly was second with 9,881 votes, Bal was third with 8,790 and Green party candidate Harold Tausch had 378 votes. After his speech, Furlong, who had predicted the Liberals would win 83 seats, said one of his first priorities will be to establish a con- stituency office. He also said he will. head for the legislature "as soon as someone tells me what I should do." Furlong added he will also start tackling local issues with one of his priorities being a lack of acute care beds at Whitþy General Hospital. His camliaign manager, Judi Longfield, vho had predicted the Liberals woùld win 80 seats, said she has been asked by Furlong to stay on as a nember of his staff. During the 28-day campaign, Longfield said Furlong's opposition- seemed to luctuate between Bail and Kelly but "personally I felt it was Sarah Ikelly." Longfield 1said Ball had Conser- vative leader Larry Grossman was a "liability" during the campaign. "The reason we won this is because we put the watch in the drawer. Everyone stayed until their task was done. That was this group's dedication and that is at- tributed to Allan," said Longfield. ALLAN FURLONG gets a congratulatory kiss from his campaign manager Judi Longfield at Heyden- shore Pavilion last Thursday. Furlong was one of 95 Liberals elected in the provincial election. Free Press photo Voter turnout at 61 per cent CONSERVATIVE CANDIDATE Stephanie Ball, with riding association president Jerry Moskaluk and cam- paign manager Ed Buffett (middle) listen to campaign team member Gary Valcour's address to supporters af- ter election defeat. Free Press photo It would appear a high turnout of Liberal voters in Whitby helped Allan Furlong win the newly created provincial riding of Durham Centre. Furlong, an Oshawa lawyer, handily won the riding comprised of Whitby and a section of Oshawa, collecting 40.3 per cent of the vote Peterson won riding: Ball Defeated Conservative candidate for Durham Centre, Stephanie Ball, says she was a victim of the Liberal. sweep over Ontario. "There wasn't a lot we could do about it," she said of her third place finish behind Liberal Allan Furlong and NDP Sarah Kelly. "We felt from the start we were fighting Peterson." She said PC leader Larry Grossman's decision to resign was "tragic" and she didn't attribute the downfall of the party to Grossman. "I i *ieve in Grossman, myself. He's a man of integrity...We sup- ported him throughout but he wasn't shown the same respect in other ridings by Tories." The Liberal win in Durham Cen- tre was evident from the first few polls for which the results were posted on both a computer scren and a wall at General Sikorski Hall Thursday, as supporters gloomily looked on. "Please tell me this isn't actual," NOTEI UNTIL SEPT. 20 Save $1800 to $3000 on our most popular Subaru Models Offer Ends Sept. 20!!! C & C MOTOR SALES (at the entrance to Midtown Mall) 155 KING ST. W. OSHAWA 579-6224 SUU u. . l>e carthat goes to e&remes. Savings shown are a combination of dealer discount and Subaru rebate was the comment of one young sup- porter who watched the numbers computed after 22 polls. "Personally I though it would be a lot closer. I'm shocked," added Jerry Moskaluk, riding president. "The bottom of the barrel is where we're sitting. There's only oné way to go now and that's up," he said of the third-place finish. Moskaluk, too, didn't blame Grossman. "I don't think it was really bis fault. He ran a good campaign, an honest campaign. We were just against the Liberal flood. It's just like there was no way to beat Mulroney in the last federal elec- tion." Moskaluk said Ball was a good candidate and "we gave a good fight. We knew we had a fight on our hands but we never read what was going to happen." He said bis task now is to keep the association strong in order to come back. he said he'll wait and see before favoring anyone as suc- cessor to Grossman. He said Grossman's announ- cement on the night of the election was "half-expected. "In certain areas, we knew there was predominantly opposition. And we also Inew there was a Mulroney backlash." Moskaluk said it will be tough to upset the new incumbent the next time around, but a strong association and four years of preparation will help. Ball, like Moskaluk, said she was satisfied with her campaign and maintained "People are concerned with issues." She didn't make any firm predictions about whether she'll be back, saying "It's easy to say tonight I will run down the road but youdon't know in four years." She added, however, "I think I'm destined for a career in politics." or 12,885 votes. His nearest rival was NDP cân- didate Sarah Kelly who collected 31.4 per cent of the vote or 9,881. Conservative candidate Stephanie Ball was third with 27.5 per cent or 8,790 votes and Green party can- didate Harold Tausch was fourth collecting 378 votes or .01 per cent. A total of 31,934 voters, or 61 per cent of the possible 52,350 turned out at the polls. While figures are not available for separate turnoutsin Whitby and Oshawa, a look at the poll-by-poll vote shows Furlong lost only a few polls in Whitby. It was a different story in Oshawa, however. Kelly easily won eight polls in northeast Oshawa and seven polls in the western section of Oshawa. Kelly also won a few polils in Whitby. Ball captured one of the largest polis which was situated in down- town Whitby. She also took a few polis in northeast Oshawa. But it was the Liberal vote in Whitby that eventually won the seat for Furlong who also won all three advance pols held in Durham Cen- tre. At the advance poil held at the Whitby municipal building; Furlong had 136 votes, Ball 103, Kelly 51 and Tausch 2. At the Oshawa advance poli, Furlong had 192 votes, Ball 145, Kelly 94 and Tausch none. At the advance pol held at the returning office on Blair St., Furlong had 386 votes, Ball 293, Kelly 233 and Tausch 7. NDP content withý2nd Sarah Kelly may have lost Durham Centre to the Liberals, but SARAH KELLY lets her hair down at election night party. Free Press photo at the post-election party at the Whitby Legion, the general feeling was one of satisfaction at coming in a strong second in the face of a Liberal tide. One party worker observed that "AI Furlong ran on David Peter- son's coattails and Peterson ran on the NDP's coattails," referring to the NDP-Liberal accord which set the agenda of Peterson's first two years as premier. Kelly arrived at the Legion hall a little more than an hour after the polls closed and immediately let her hair down, the first time since the campaign started that she had appeared in public with her hair down. Campaign manager Barry Salmon explained that in order to maintain an consistent identifiable image, he had insisted that the candidate keep her hair one way or the other for the whole campaign. She had chosen up. Kelly addressed her workers briefly, thanking them for their ef- forts on the party's behalf. Salmon observed that the second- place finish was not unexpected in the circuistances and that without the Peterson factor Kelly could have won. Riding association president, Don Stewart (who had been the candidate in the last election) ex- pressed the general satisfaction that the party would be forming the official opposition. He referred to SEE PAGE 22