Underdog Mike Bossio on how he got elected

By LaShaina Blair-White 

BELLEVILLE – Liberal Mike Bossio is the first member of parliament for the new of riding of Hastings-Lennox and Addington.

Bossio’s victory on Oct. 19 is an underdog story, because he wasn’t expected to win. Conservative Daryl Kramp was highly favoured for the riding, having been MP of Prince-Edward Hastings since 2004. Threehundredeight – a political website that predicts results based on polling – even gave Kramp an 88 per cent chance of winning going into election day.

But all that changed when Bossio and Kramp were neck-and-neck into the early hours of the morning. Bossio finally won the seat by 373 votes, surprising many.

Bossio said he thinks he started out as an underdog because of Kramp, but things changed toward the end of the campaign.

What gave Bossio the edge in the end was door-knocking, he says.

The new MP said his next steps are to hire a staff and relocate to a permanent office before being sworn in.