There’s no skating around the fact the NDP did poorly in Toronto.Once again, Justin Trudeau’s party benefited from a strong anti-Conservative sentiment in the city. Once again, all 25 federal Toronto seats went Liberal. On Monday, former Davenport MP Andrew Cash was the sole New Democrat candidate to finish within 2,000 votes of winning their seat in Toronto, narrowly beaten by Liberal incumbent Julie Dzerowicz. The same result as 2015, when Cash lost his seat. The Star spoke with Cash on Friday about losing a second time, unfinished business and why an all-Liberal Toronto may be bad for democracy.This interview has been edited for clarity and length.You did well on Monday with more than 40 per cent of the vote and more votes even than when you won in 2011. What do you take away from the campaign? The feeling that is lasting has been — how should I say this without sounding schmaltzy? — the whole campaign was really affirming and energizing, every day of it. I knew we had a good chance of winning but I didn’t think we would get over 20,000 votes as the non-incumbent. I was really blown away by that.This is going to sound weird, but even people that I know did not vote for me were inspired by our campaign, by (NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh) and by our platform — it’s one of the peculiarities of an election like this that a lot of those people voted Liberal.What were some of the things that you found inspiring?We are fed this myth that people aren’t engaged in politics, and I’ve never experienced that....It’s not that people are removed from politics, it’s that politics has been removed from people. I’m really proud that we never lost our focus on what we were trying to do, which was to change the system here in Canada so that we could properly address the real issues that people are facing, especially in a city like Toronto with the incredible issues of affordability.With you outside of Parliament ...
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