The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 39

The Citizen, Ottawa, Friday, September 19, 1975, Page 39 Objection 75 Carleton East 1 Gigantes winner in reporter ba ttle wT i i. ''V iYilf '7 i i ii 'JVM 1 By Murray Campbell and Frank Howard Citizen staff writers New Democrat Evelyn Gigantes turned the electoral tables Thursday on the Liberal who beat her in a Carleton East byelection 10 months ago. Ms. Gigantes, 32, defeated Liberal Paul Taylor by 198 votes in their second contest. He defeated her by 240 votes in the byelection.

Darwin Kealey, a former research aide to Premier William Davis, trailed more than 2,000 votes behind in a riding which was a Tory stronghold until a year ago. With 201 of 202 polls accounted for, the results were: Ms. Gigantes, Mr. Taylor, 11,584 and Mr. Kealey, 9,426.

It was a see-saw battle all night between the two broadcasters Ms. Gigantes, a CBC television reporter and Mr. Taylor, a 30-year-old radio reporter. At 9:10 p.m. NDP campaign manager Rod Dickinson said the other two candidates had conceded the race.

Ms. Gigantes, nervously chain smoking cigarettes, exploded with glee and left shortly after to join a massive NDP celebration at the Civic Centre. "I am so, so pleased with the results," she told several thousand party supporters. "Carleton East came through and voted for us and voted for change and we're going to see that they get that change." Darwin Kealey arrived 45 minutes later and in a quiet corner of the huge hall congratulated Ms. Gigantes for her victory.

He said he doubted the two straight defeats for the Tories in the riding spelled an end to their hopes in the area, but added he would spend the weekend assessing the vote before deciding what went wrong. He said he didn't know if he would be returning to Toronto and his job in the premier's office. Mr. Taylor's Liberal supporters had gathered early for a victory celebration at a hotel in Orleans, but their optimism soured when at 9:20 p.m. their candidate arrived in the banner-festooned dance hall and announced his defeat.

John Turner didn't come He told his supporters: "Perhaps I was not cut out for this sort of work." Conspicous by his absence at the party was former finance minister John Turner, who promised a day earlier that he would attend. Mr. Taylor arrived at the Civic Centre about 10:30 p.m. and in a short speech left doubt about the grace with which he was accepting his defeat. He was booed heavily when he said the NDP victory in Carleton East had resulted from a "confused electorate." "But you mustn't misunderstand me, you ran a damned good campaign," he continued amid the catcalls.

"It's just that the voters in Ontario haven't come down to the ground yet." ii it iS; Taylor moans of 'confused electorate' phone portion of Carleton East from 35 per cent to 22 per cent may have been Mr. Taylor's undoing. He retained his hold on the francophone Orleans polls but had to settle for mostly two-way races in the southern areas added to riding. Mr. Kealey and Mr.

Taylor dominated the polls in the village of Rockcliffe and Ms. Gigantes scored heavily in sections of Manor Park and Beacon Hill. Carleton East (' Denotes member of last parliament. Winner in bold type) Evelyn Gigantes (NDP) 11,782 Paul Taylor (L) 1 1,584 Darwin Kealey (PC) 9,426 He finished his speech by predicting that a "positive Liberal campaign in 1976 will sweep the province." The reduction through redistribution of the franco- Bill Brcnnan, Citizen Bill Evelyn Gigantes explodes with glee at news her opponents had conceded Carleton Handleman holds seat with slim margin workers in Carleton began to relax. From that point on, the whoops of approval grew louder as each new count showed Mr.

Handleman stretching his lead. Mr. Handleman ran strongly in rural areas and had an edge in some residential areas, such as Manordale, St. Clair Gardens and the Meadowlands Drive area. He also benefitted from traditional increase the Liberal vote, but he failed to make inroads in traditional Conservative areas.

Mr. Kritsch told NDP supporters at the Civic Centre that he'll be back again and again, if necessary. Despite an increase of only 35 votes over the NDP tally in 1971, Mr. Kritsch said he was happy because "it's the best show we've ever put on." He said the cut in the Conservative vote reflected Mr. Handleman's lack of concern for the people of Carleton and said the change in boundaries helped the NDP establish new strongholds in the riding.

It wasn't until 140 polls were in that Mr. Handleman managed to open a 400-vote gap between himself and his Liberal challenger, and Tory party ir- CI solid backing at two polls in senior citizens' residences. Mr. Franklin's best polls were in Bells Corners, Ryan Farm, Barrhaven and Leslie Park. Mr.

Kritsch made his best showing in Bayshore, where he actually outpolled both his opponents. Mr. Handleman and Mr. Franklin split the vote in Parkwood Hills, Trend Village and Kanata, with neither candidate emerging with a significant edge. Mr.

Handleman said he was surprised by the outcome provincially, maintaining that he expected the Conseveratives to win a majority. "I don't think we anticipated a minority government until yesterday," he said. He said he wasn't surprised at the gains made by the NDP. "There's no question in my mind that they deserve to be the official opposition because they've been the only effective opposition for the past four years. 'Nixon big loser' "Certainly the big loser is Bob Nixon and the Liberal party." He said he expected the election result to end Mr.

Nixon's tenure as Liberal leader. "If he doesn't, there's something wrong with his party. I can't see them keeping a three-time loser as leader." Mr. Handleman refused to speculate about his future in the cabinet, saying only that Premier William Davis will obviously need to shuffle his cabinet in the wake of the election verdict. Carleton (' Denotes member of last parliament.

Winner in bold type) By Don Butler and Dave Mulholland Citizen staff writers The bad taste of a bitterly fought campaign lingered Thursday as Carleton Conservative Sid Handleman saw his 1971 plurality of 7,500 votes cut to 800 by Liberal challenger Ben Franklin. "It's not my kind of campaign. To me it was very distasteful," said the minister of consumer and commercial relations. But Mr. Franklin found some consolation in defeat.

Cut into majority "Cutting into his majority has to make an impression on him, and his relationship with council should improve," he said. The final tally of the riding's 213 polls reporting gave Mr. Handleman 12, 1 867 votes, Mr. Franklin 12,023 votes, New Democrat Gordon Kritsch 7,691 votes and independent Mike Sammon 164. In large measure the campaign was an extension of a highly-visible public fued between Nepean Reeve Andy Haydon and Mr.

Handleman. Mr. Haydon had charged Mr. Handle- man with failing to adequately represent the riding at Queen's Park. Mr.

Franklin, a 33-year-old Nepean councillor, picked up Mr. Haydon's banner, and Mr. Handleman admitted it was an effective tactic. "Haydon coming out the way he did obviously had some effect on the cam-' paign," he said. However, he attributed a large part of his diminished support to "anti-government feeling across the country." Mr.

Franklin said it was difficult to assess the effect of the Haydon-Handle-man dispute on the campaign. He said I i i. fcr 0 Sid Hiodtemai (PC) -1267 Ben Franklin (I.) 12 023 Bryce Ffyaa, Citizen Gordon Kritsch (NDP) 7,691 Mike Sammon (Ind) 164 Sid and Ruth Handleman find a moment alone at campaign headquarters the change in nding boundaries neipea 7.