Denise Savoie, returning NDP Victoria MP, is happy that the horserace has ended.

“It was a pretty long 35 days of being full-on,” she said in a phone interview. Her next priority is spending a few days with her grandchildren, she said.

Savoie can afford the extra breathing room because she was incumbent going into this election. Her staff is already arranged, and the 35 days of being full-on were just a hiatus from normal operation.

“Sadly, only 59 per cent of the Canadian population voted [in this election],” said Savoie. “I think some of that is due to disenfranchisement because of the new Conservative election laws.”

Bill C-31, passed in 2007, requires voters to bring some kind of identification and proof of address with them to the polling station. According to the Elections Canada report on the new system, more than nine in 10 voters felt that meeting the ID requirement was easy. However, critics of the system have said that it strongly affects several groups of Canadians.

Those who will vote if it’s convenient may not have ID with their address on it and may not want to make two trips. Those who may not have ID or an address, like the homeless, cannot vote even if they are on the voter list. As Savoie stated, this election did see a record low in voter turnout.

Savoie said she would seek to rectify the type of situation faced by the NDP, who historically receive about 10 per cent of the seats in the House of Commons but receive about 20 per cent of the popular vote, by reforming the electoral system to “some form of proportional representation.”

Affordable housing, she said, is her first priority with this government.

“I’m ashamed of the way Canada’s dealing with it,” she said, adding that climate change was also high on her personal list of issues.

Savoie could not comment further on any NDP priorities, as the party will be establishing those at a caucus in the coming weeks.