The following speech was delivered by Stella at the meeting on June 28, 2010:

 

Good evening. Thank you everyone for coming out tonight, especially on such a hot summer evening.

Thank you, Bob, for that kind introduction. I look forward to serving with you as part of the Conservative caucus after the next election.

I'd also like to thank Oakvillve MP Terence Young. I know that your schedules are extremely busy. Thank you for being here with us tonight.

I also want to take this opportunity to thank the riding association here in Mississauga South - not only for their work in organizing this meeting, but for keeping this riding strong and active between elections.

I don’t know when that election will be. I was hoping Bob or Terence might be able to tell us – but they don't seem to know either!

As you know, in a minority situation, we must always be ready. I know that this riding association will be ready to help me carry Stephen Harper's Conservative message to every household in this riding when the time comes.

Tonight, I receive the honour of being your candidate with humility and gratitude. And I would not be here without the team that has been working hard on my behalf since this campaign began last fall.

Thank you to all of the volunteers who have worked on my campaign, for your time and your confidence in me up to this point. I will continue to earn the faith you have put in me.

Thanks also to the Candidate Nomination and to our riding membership chair.

I've gotten to know these folks well, and hope to get to know them even better in the months ahead.

For those of you who don't know me, I’m grateful tonight to have this opportunity to tell you a little about myself.

I’ve been living in Peel Region since 1980 and my family and I moved to Lorne Park last summer.

Like many people in this community, I am the child of immigrants. My parents came to Canada from Italy in the 1950s. They worked hard and insisted my brother and I get an education. They instilled in us the faith and values that guide me in raising my own family today.

When my husband and I decided it was time to move from Brampton, we searched for a solid neighbourhood, a quality school for our children and a riding had a good chance of electing a Conservative MP. We found in south Mississauga all of these things. The day we moved in last summer, we knew we had made the right choice for our family. We love it here and I'm proud to call this my  home.

I want to make Mississauga South an even better place to live, work, and raise a family. I believe in the values of family, community and public service. I am very fortunate to live in such a great country as Canada and to have been blessed with a wonderful and healthy family. Politics is something I not only enjoy but it is my way to give back.

I started my journey in politics with the help of a friend - my cousin Rita, who asked me to attend a delegate selection meeting in 1985. I am proud to say that the friends I made at that meeting are still my friends today, and some of them are here tonight.

My interest in politics snowballed from there. From president of my riding youth association and then campus club at U of T, I graduated to running campaigns for Harry Chadwick in 1993, Beryl Ford in 1997 and 2000, and Tony Clement in 2004.

During this time, our children were born and I was able to combine being a stay-at-home mother for 9 years with my involvement in these and other election campaigns.

In 2001, I helped found the “Forward Thinking” group, aimed at encouraging the two conservative parties to work together. Though it was tough slogging at first, by the end of 2003, the two parties joined to form the Conservative Party of Canada and, only a few months later, we reduced the Liberals to their first minority government in 32 years. That was six years ago today.  You know the rest of the story... a year and a half after that, Stephen Harper became the Prime Minister.

In 2008, I took the plunge and stood as a federal candidate in Bramalea-Gore-Malton. When people tell you that running in an election and losing is a great experience, it sounds like an Oscar nominee saying “it’s an honour just to be nominated.” But it really was a great experience, and one that I will build on as your candidate here in Mississauga South.

I worked very hard in that election, and knocked on thousands of doors between January and October of 2008. With the help of a fantastic team, I was able to reduce the Liberal incumbent's margin of victory from 9,000 votes - which he won by in 2006 - to 3,800 votes in 2008, representing  a difference of less than 8 per cent.

Here in Mississauga South, we lost the last 2 elections by under 5 per cent. We came close but we weren't able to improve vote totals from the '06 election to the '08 election. We must do things differently.

How can we win?

There are 3 main components to a successful local campaign:

The first is to create a united, large and effective team, one that welcomes all volunteers and is positive and friendly. The best campaigns bring together those people with a lot of political experience and those who are just starting out. In the '08 election, there were over 150 volunteers working to get-out-the-vote in my old riding. We need to have this kind of strength - plus more - here in Mississauga South in order to win.

Secondly, we need to raise money. Successful campaigns cost a lot, that's a fact. In the previous campaign, with the help of more than a few determined friends and family, we were able to raise $70,000 to add to the $30,000 the riding had in the bank when I was nominated. That was not only enough to spend the limit but we also had funds left over for pre-writ initiatives, such as a voter identification phonebank, research, mailings and a canvass brochure. I was proud to hand over a  $54,000 rebate cheque from Elections Canada to the riding after the election.

Finally, we need a hard-working candidate, and I have started working already.  I've been knocking on doors of Conservative members and potential members every weekend since January, meeting as many of you as possible, and recruiting new members and future campaign volunteers. I'll continue to get out there and pound the pavement, meeting the voters, listening to their concerns and telling them about the Conservative government's vision for Canada.

Rest assured that I am a dedicated campaigner, I know what it takes to win, and I won't stop working until the last ballot is counted on Election Day.

If we do these things - and capitalize on the strong campaign Stephen Harper will run - we can, and will, beat Paul Szabo. This community deserves an MP who can get things done, both here in the riding and in Ottawa, as a part of a Stephen Harper Conservative government.

The polls that we see in the media every week make for interesting coffee talk, but make no mistake: campaigns matter.  Just ask the 200 Members of Parliament that Paul Martin was going to have six years ago. 

The next campaign will be no different.

In the next campaign, Canadians will be asked to choose between two very different leaders, with very different visions.

Who will Canadians prefer: Harvard elitist Michael Ignatieff?  Or visionary, get-things-done Stephen Harper?

• Liberal games and shenanigans? Or Conservative vision, action and solid government?
• The Liberals internal divisions?  Or the Conservatives' prudent fiscal management?
• Another empty Liberal promise of state-run day care for some?  Or the Conservatives’ equal funding for all children?

An invisible and ineffective Liberal MP or a Conservative MP who is a caring and approachable local representative and who has a real say in Ottawa?

I look forward to debating Mr. Szabo - to asking him tough questions about how he has represented this riding for the last 17 years.

Voters know it's time for a change but getting the message out will require my full commitment.

As some of you know, my day job is also political. I work for the Honourable Jim Flaherty, Canada's Minister of Finance and Minister Responsible for the Greater Toronto Area. My role relates to his responsibility as the regional minister. As the Director of Regional Affairs for the past 16 months, I provided advice to Minister Flaherty on federal government projects and initiatives in the GTA.

The job carries with it a huge time commitment and is challenging and demanding, as well as rewarding and exciting. Being the Minister's chief of staff for his GTA portfolio gave me insight into the workings of government that I didn't have before and will make for a faster climb up the learning curve for a rookie MP. I will be able to hit the ground running when I get to Parliament Hill!

So, with gratitude to Jim for the wonderful opportunity, I've decided to leave the job so that I can campaign full-time in Mississauga South. I want to win and be able to give the job of winning all of my time and attention.

I don’t have time to thank everyone on whose shoulders I am standing tonight. But I do want to thank most of all my loving family - my parents, brother and sister-in-law, aunts, uncles, cousins and most of all my husband Richard and our children. Thank you for putting up with my sometimes all-consuming political interest and for your unwavering support.

Like most candidates, my family are a big reason I am running.  Over the past few years, we have seen the difference government can make in a country’s success – or failure.  Look at the United States, still struggling back from the recession, with millions of people still unemployed.  Or Greece, where a generation has been raised with an insatiable demand for government support – and run out of taxes to feed it.

With Stephen Harper, Canada has a government that is accountable, responsible on the economy, and tough on criminals.

With the Liberals and NDP – and possibly the Bloc – Canada would have a government accountable only to its friends, unpredictable on the economy, and soft on criminals.

These are the things I think of when I think of the future that awaits my children and grandchildren.

Every campaign I have worked on has brought new additions to my political family, and I expect this campaign to be no different.

The problem with family is, they are always asking for help. And you can expect this candidate to be no different.

I need your help. Yes, I have run a few campaigns. But I didn’t run any of them alone. I look forward to seeing all of you over the next weeks and months, as we work towards building a Conservative majority, starting in this riding.

Nothing can be taken for granted. Only hard work by a dedicated team can start a new Conservative Legacy in Mississauga South.

I ask you tonight to join me in creating this team, being a part of it. We haven't won here in a long time for a variety of reasons but the past is the past.

We're all Conservatives who share a common goal to elect a Conservative government. Let's work together to do that and, in doing so, come to know and respect one another. There are over a thousand members of the Conservative Party of Canada in Mississauga South. If each of us turns just two votes, we win!

So please don't leave here tonight without signing up to be a part of the team. Whatever time and type of assistance you can give will be gratefully accepted.

To continue the Harper government’s good work, we need to win this riding and other ridings in the GTA. As your candidate, I promise that I will work every day to become the next Member of Parliament for Mississauga South.

Let's return Stephen Harper and the Conservatives government to Ottawa with an MP from Mississauga South at the table.

See you on the campaign trail!

Thank you.