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THE ERA The Second Section Sports News District News Classified Section HODGSON LEWIS Hodgson will shoot for fourth term By TERRY CARTER Era Editor NEWMARKET There were sighs of relief expressions of Joy and a readiness to start the whole thing over again at Bill Hodgsons campaign headquarters Thursday night It was former Newmarket mayor Tom Surgeoner a Hodgson campaigner dancing a jig before fellow workers and singing Well have a party tonight when a Hodgson vic tory became apparent It was Aurora Mayor Evelyn Buck later telling these same campaigners at their boisterous victory party in the Newmarket Legion that it had been the dirtiest campaign she had ever experienced and ling them to gird for support thus effectively spiking rumors that he is planning to retire and turn the mantle over to Newmarket Mayor Bob flanked by his wife and 91-year- old mother reminding his supporters that I kept telling you all that it would be a tight election coming forth with a new prediction another election shortly and stating his Intention to stand in that one too Weve got to start preparing for an election soon Mr Hodgson told campaign workers during the same speech in which he thanked hem for their efforts He told them he expected to be a candidate in that election and asked for their the tallies the evening the PC paigners erupted into choruses of For Hes a Jolly Good Fellow and followed them by three cheers leaving no doubt of their intentions should they be called upon shortly to wage another election campaign Official returns gave Mr Hodgson votes Liberal candidate Margaret Britnell and New Democrat Bob Lewis 9256 LEAD CUT Thus although 2819 more people cast ballots in the newly- organized riding of York North Thursday night than did in the old riding in the 1971 election Mr Hodgsons lead was cut by votes from his 1971 total of In the NDP gar nered with Mr Lewis as candidate and the Liberals polled with George son now an Aurora Councillor as their candidate Polling results rolled rapidly into the Hodgson campaign headquarters at Newmarket Plaza but it wasnt until well over threequarters of posting the results poll by poll on a large wall chart felt sure enough of victory to express his jubilation A few minutes later the and a noisy evening of dancing drinking and eating The piece Nostalgia Dance Band from King City Secondary School had volun teered its services for the victory party and it spent the evening blaring ragtime Dixie and rock music interpersed with bubbly oldfashioned waltzes and the occasional polka At times happy revellers were lined up before the single bar and although parly organizers had originally when the party got into full swing First to it needed them and then repeated about together crowded Legion hall Around pm the two defeated candidates Mrs and Mr Lewis arrived i gone again back to their own campaign workers parties King Township Tories were particularly jubilant over the election Mr Hodgson a former reeve of King defeated King Mayor in the township polls and one Conservative poll captain from claimed plans are already underway to keep the King portion of the Hodgson campaign staff tether to fight Mrs Britnell in next years municipal campaign However Mrs Britnell announced Thursday sho will not seek reelection as mayor next year TOUGH NOT DIRTY Hodgson agreed with Mrs Bucks assessment of the campaign as a dirty one he later refused to elaborate and said he should have termed it a tough campaign Mrs Buck had told the campaign workers it was one of hardestfought campaigns she had ever been a part of and said she had never been in a dirtier campaign Questioned later for specifics on campaign dirty IBs A f she refused York North and his wife Ilia accept congratulations from the losers In last weeks election Bob Lewis of the and Margaret of the Liberal Party Mr Lewis and Mrs appeared briefly during Conservative victory celebration in Newmarket Britnell feels marvelous about her loss ByJOIINLOTT Era News Editor AURORA It didnt look like a losers party Had Margaret downcast in defeat have been a wake Instead she was epitome of smiling on St Some spirits were low early n the evening It was clear from reelected But once that was out of the way the Liberals found their bright spots A minority government The defeat of three Roman down the road respectable second- place run in York North JOINED DANCERS Margaret had her glum moments too early in the evening but soon she was reassuring her workers and flashing her Pepsodent smile and later she joined those dancing to rock music in the basement I feel marvelous about it the election she said mid way through the evening The workers are a little disap pointed but weve never done so Bob Roth the Aurora councillor and free lance journalist who handled the Britnell campaign publicity had Viewing the pollbypoll results at 9 pm Mr Roth ob served The most encouraging thing about it is that he Mr Hodgson is not going to get a plurality I think it certainly shows that the people are dissatisfied with the govern ment I havent lost my faith in people Margaret Smithyes the campaign manager said she couldnt predict the York North outcome beforehand She and Mrs both felt he Liberals would do well but were far from confident of victory I thought it would be close and I really didnt know who was going to come said Mrs She also offered another observation one which she then refused to explain I enjoy an honest and aboveboard battle said Mrs iMv in mi that its very difficult to fight that sort of battle in a provincial election at this time ITALIAN LEAFLET She made vague reference to the Conservatives going into nursing homes and using people She referred to the Tories campaign leaflet printed included a photograph of the premier with the Pope But Mrs Smithyes refused to elaborate further on her in timations that the campaign said she still felt good about the election even though her party had dropped to third place in the Legislature as the New Democratic Party doubled its number of seals What Im pleased about Is that this is a minority govern ment and that means theyre going to have to work down mere she said It gave them the Tories one helluva shaking up The days of wine and roses She agreed that the Ontario Liberals would probably find a new leader to replace Robert Nixon And she agreed that it would be nice if we could in terest John Turner who recently resigned as the federal Finance Minister Mrs Britnell wont run again for the mayors job in King Township But now its back to being a fulltime mayor until the end of year she said Mean- organization and from there Weve got a going group of people a good bunch And we didnt fight at all within the local party in cam paign learn how to lose The Liberals had no par ticular strategy in York North except to concentrate straight from the YORK NORTH TOTALS NEWMARKET Hodgson PC Hodgson 1936 Lewis Lewis 2859 1553 AURORA Hodgson Hodgson 1890 I 1405 KING TOWNSHIP ADVANCE Hodgson Hodgson 519 I 356 I I Lewis 247 think campaign Mr Hodgson running on his record and the record speaks for itself its not a very good record Mrs sajd noting that more people voted against Mr Hodgson than voted for him Mr Roth said he feels the vote shows majority support for the slowgrowth policies of both the Liberals and NDP in York North The similarity of the two parties policies also helped to split the opposition to the Conservatives he said Hope fades quickly for Bob Lewis at NDP headquarters By BOB MARTIN Era Stiff Reporter AURORA The youth enthusiasm and humor that were a keynote of the New Democratic Party campaign in York North remained right up Even before the polls had dosed youngsters some of hem too young to vote hurried around the partys St campaign office here busying to become wake Candidate Bob Lewis arrived at pm long before the first results began to filter Into the committee rooms Early returns from Newmarket polls particularly East Gwitlimbury Heights gave Mr Lewis the edge although nobody tabulated a total point at least appeared just nip and tuck The way its coming right now said Mr Lewis reflects what we said about the results unpredictable As the night wore on however the unpredictable became just what was expected ahead to retain his seat FATE APPARENT It wasnt until a reporter photographer team touring all three campaign headquarters brought the news that the Conservatives did indeed have a lead that the fate became apparent From that point events moved quickly Mr Lewis obviously disappointed but still main taining his sense of humor quipped to campaign organizer Ron Bell shortly before pm Somebody belter phone up Hodgsons headquarters and ask whether we lost Moments later the Canadian Broadcasting Cor poration election team con firmed a win for Mr Hodgson At 940 pm Mr Lewis gathered the party faithful and following a short address presented a bottle of cham pagne to Mr Bell a tradition launched by Mr Lewis during his 1971 election campaign Youve all done a really great job he told the gathering We climbed again we moved up closer Its bound to be a good government and we are going to carry a big slick Then began a round of First stop was Liberal party headquarters just down the street where Mr Lewis and Liberal candidate Britnell teamed up to visit Mr Hodg sons campaign headquarters at Newmarket Plaza From there it was on to the Newmarket Legion for another visit with Mr Hodgson during his victory party By pm Mr Lewis was back at his own campaign office discussing the election and his plans for the future WONT RUN AGAIN Tonight He explained he had the satisfaction of presenting his parlys platform in the best manner possible In this election I gave my peeled to do no better said Mr Asked who could be pected to carry the parlys banner in next campaign Mr Lewis suggested that one likely candidate would be Guslar who represented the NDP in the federal election He did well in the last federal election said Mr Turning to his own defeat the candidate cited Newmarket and Aurora as the keys to whole riding In Newmarket he ran second with 2950 votes to Mr Hodgsons votes while in Aurora he finished third trailing Mrs Britnell by only One of the NDPs poorer showings was in the new section of the riding covering Vaughan where Mr Hodgson collected votes Mrs tallied 1890 and Mr Lewis posted 1405 The NDP candidate blamed his poor thirdplace finish in Vaughan on a lack of exposure What allcandidates meetings there v attracted attended by only two of either attracted a poor turnout the three candidates said Mr There was no exposure to the people he said TRIPARTY MEETINGS Had allcandidates meetings such as those spon sored by The Era in Newmarket and The Banner in Aurora been held in Vaughan I think I could have done well there said Mr While disappointed in his own defeat Mr Lewis described the showing across the province as indicative of the change in Ontario Reviewing he trend across province that gave the Mr Lewis predicted I dont think the Conservatives could stand a minority govern ment figure theyll blow their stacks and call an election within a year At the same time he wouldnt predict whether the New Democratic Parly could move into power during the next election You cant change people overnight said Mr Lewis But people are changing That much became obvious the candidate greeted the supporters who wandered from the committee room once the nights work was complete What youre seeing here is somelhing Ive found more in this election Bob Lewis told The Era Weve had people