More than 100 of his supporters crowded into Coopers Pub on Burnhamthorpe Rd. W. to watch the race Tuesday night on five large TVs.
They were on the edge of their seats as they chanted and cheered in anticipation as the votes see-sawed back and forth. By night's end, their candidate won by a 239-vote margin over Liberal incumbent Omar Alghabra, reversing the 2006 outcome.
Meanwhile, an equal number of Alghabra supporters, including Liberal MPPs Charles Sousa and Harinder Takhar, were crowded around one small TV in a meeting room at the Erin Mills Twin Arena.
Earlier on in the night, Elias Hazineh, the president of the Liberal campaign, said he was confident Alghabra would win.
Just past midnight, when the gap had widened in favour of Dechert, Hazineh spoke words of encouragement.
"My friends, cheer up and smile," he said. "There are 7,000 votes cast in advance polls and the margin that Dechert is ahead has been reduced to 200. We're getting closer."
But it wasn't a good omen when they had to disband at 12:30 a.m. because the arena had to be closed.
Alghabra made a brief appearance at the facility before the final numbers came in and thanked everyone for their support. He said whatever the outcome, he was certain the winning candidate would do a tremendous service to the community.
Meanwhile, over at Coopers, Dechert and his supporters were jubilant.
"I feel good (about the win), and humbled by it," said a grinning Dechert, noting that from Day One he felt good about his chances of winning the Mississauga Erindale seat.
His campaign team, he said, had worked hard to earn the respect of all the people in the riding, especially over the last little while.
"Obviously the stock market turmoil over the last two weeks did take a toll," he said to The News. "People got worried about the economy, which is understandable. But once they had an opportunity to reflect and learned that our banks are best in the world, our economy is best in the G7, and the employee numbers in September created 107,000 new jobs, (voters) realized the practical management in Stephen Harper in the face of all this versus Stephane Dion, who wanted to give us a carbon tax — and they made the right decision."
Dechert said he will be pleased to represent Mississauga as a member of government.
"I have a close relationship with the Prime Minister," he said. "I've known him for over 10 years and we respect each other and I think I can get things done in Mississauga."
Dechert said he'll be starting tomorrow to keep Mississauga and the GTA a strong economic engine of Canada by working on trade policy and infrastructure. He also mentioned settlement funds for new Canadians as among his priorities.
Dechert won with 42.6 per cent of the votes (23,795), followed by Alghabra with 42.2 per cent (23,556), and NDP candidate Mustafa Rizvi with 8.5 per cent (4,767). Green Party candidate Richard Pietro won 3,636 votes (with 6.5 per cent) and Marxist-Leninist candidate Dagmar Sullivan earned 128 votes to bring up the rear.
With such a close outcome, Alghabra said he would be looking into requesting a recount of the votes.
jle@mississauga.net
