WINDSOR, ONT.—George Russell’s demeanour spoke volumes even before he opened his mouth.

The 59-year-old was more than little ticked off at something or somebody, and he eventually spit out the answer like a man who had just swallowed a bug.

“All my life I have been a Liberal but never again . . . what they have done is unconscionable,” he said after opening the door to Percy Hatfield, the NDP candidate in the Windsor—Tecumseh byelection.

Hatfield naturally asked if he could count on his vote come Aug. 1.

“I am doing it this year,” said Russell, who is soon to retire early with his half share of a $649,000 in Lotto 6/49 winnings from last year.

A bit up the street, Bop Pope, 63, took a break from cutting his lawn in the sweltering July heat.

“I am fed up with what is happening at Queen’s Park and what they are doing with those gas plants,” he said referring to the politically motivated decision by the Liberals to scrap two gas plants in Mississauga and Oakville prior to the 2011 election, costing taxpayers $585 million.

“They lied, they lied and they lied (about the real cost). Is it too much to expect a certain degree of honesty?” said the professional photographer.

This is not what the Grits want to hear, especially in a riding that has been Liberal red since 1995.

A combination of political scandals, nagging unemployment, Liberal recruitment snafus, and general voter discontent appears to be the makings of an easy romp for the 64-year-old Hatfield, a retired long-time CBC-TV reporter and, more recently, a Windsor city councillor for eight years.

“Things aren’t good in Liberal land,” said one senior Liberal.

The successful federal-provincial bailout for the auto industry — near and dear to Windsor’s heart — a new medical school, post secondary infrastructure spending among others things have been eclipsed by a litany of spending scandals at Queen’s Park.

Liberal campaign director Tom Allison acknowledges there is also a lingering bitterness among traditional supporters over the failure of former Windsor West MPP Sandra Pupatello to win the Liberal leadership, which went to Kathleen Wynne.

Of the five provincial byelections called for Aug, 1, this riding is the one the pollsters say is the easiest to predict — an NDP victory. That might not have been the case if the Liberals had been able to convince popular Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis to carry the party colours.

The list of those who decided against running for the Grits — including Hatfield, Gary McNamara, mayor of neighbouring Town of Tecumseh and an unnamed Windsor councillor — is longer than those who wanted the job.

That nomination went to provincial political newcomer Jeewen Gill, a 45-year-old small business owner.

The riding had been held by former Ontario finance minister Dwight Duncan for almost 18 years until he retired from politics earlier this year, following former premier Dalton McGuinty’s departure.

“When a long-standing, respected person leaves their post it is up for grabs . . . (even) the Conservatives have a way better shot than they use to in this riding,” said Cheryl Collier, a political science professor at University of Windsor.

Tory candidate Robert de Verteuil, 40, a business development manager for an automotive engineering firm, insists he can’t be counted out in this race. It is his second try at winning the provincial seat.

“There is a sense of change in the air and it is my job to give them hope,” said the father of three, who predicts a resurgence of a modernized auto industry in Windsor-Detroit.

De Verteuil said the riding is in play, in part, because “Windsor has changed. It is not a rigid monolithic union town as it used to be.”

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It has been about 50 year since the Ontario Progressive Conservatives won a provincial riding in Windsor.

Hatfield said a few things turned him off of the Liberals, including the minority government’s decision to pull the slot machines out of Windsor Raceway, which was the death knell for the now boarded-up harness racing landmark.

“What I couldn’t figure out why they were doing it because the slots at the raceway earned good money for the government . . . that’s when my respect for the government started to wane,” he said.

Active for years in the union at CBC, Hatfield said he “lost total respect” for the Liberals when they forced contracts on elementary and high school teachers. Yet as a council member, he turned on striking CUPE workers during on the 2009 garbage strike, resulting in their jobs being privatized.

“I only recently became a New Democrat in order to run,” Hatfield said.

Gill is the quintessential immigrant story — a guy with a university degree who immigrates to Canada and ends up driving cab in Toronto before moving to Windsor to open up his own real estate and mortgage brokerage.

“My credentials were not recognized but you have to survive . . . you have to work hard to establish yourself. We left that country (India) for the betterment of myself and my (family), so you have to work hard,” he said.

Gill sees running for MPP as an opportunity to give back to his community.

“I feel passionate about that and that is why I bring my name forward,” said Gill, who was nominated to run for the Liberals only on June 27 after all other efforts to find a candidate were exhausted.

As Gill hustles from door to door in the run-up to election day, he says he has heard about the gas plants and the racetrack closure only a few times “but more are concerned about jobs and health care.”

Windsor has the third highest unemployment rate in Canada at 9.4 per cent, though it’s slowly coming down.

Gill said he doesn’t see any major hurdles for the Liberals in the riding. “People are looking at what we did for them in the last 10 years (with the Liberals in power),” he said.

Meanwhile, de Verteuil said voter apathy is a hurdle for all the parties, and he fears it may be even worse this time around with the Aug. 1 voting day landing smack dab in the middle of traditional summer vacations.

“It does make everything more unpredictable here,” he said.