Open this photo in gallery: Liberal MP Bruce Fanjoy is greeted with hugs and handshakes by patrons at 692 Coffee and Bar in Manotick, Ont, in the Ottawa area, on May 1. Mr. Fanjoy defeated Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre in the riding in this week's federal election.Ashley Fraser/The Globe and Mail Bruce Fanjoy, the soft-spoken political neophyte who stripped Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of his seat in a stunning election upset, was greeted like a triumphant Roman emperor when he returned to his home village of Manotick on Thursday. “It‘s impressive. You’ve done well,” effused a man with a beard who stopped the new Liberal MP on the steps to a coffee shop. “Remember the little people!” “I am still one of the little people,” the newly-elected member for Carleton replied with characteristic humility. “Yay Bruce!” said one woman approaching him for a hug, with a beaming smile. Laura Glasper the co-owner of Café 692, put down a latte she had just made to greet the newly-minted MP exuberantly in her apron. “Hey Bruce, you must be exhausted,” she said. “No, I’m fired up,” the victor replied. Mr. Fanjoy is no stranger to cafés. Stopping for a caffeine fix after knocking on doors was part of his campaign routine, but he will not say how many dark-roast black coffees he downed during his quest to unseat the Tory leader. “Enough to slay a giant,” he said The former marketing director at accounting firm Deloitte pounded so many streets in the vast Ottawa riding that he wore out two pairs of shoes. “They have holes, not all the way through. I should have replaced them already but I kind of became attached to them,” he says. Mr. Fanjoy, who has never run for political office before, would have been a risky bet to gain the seat Mr. Poilievre first won in 2004, when he was 25 years old. But on election night, the Liberals defied the odds to win the riding with 50.8 per cent of the vote. Carleton, a huge, horseshoe-shaped constituency that hugs Ottawa from east to west, had the country’s highest voter turnout in advance polls, as well as 91 candidates – including the Rhinoceros Party – on the ballot. Open this photo in gallery: Josée Wall, outside a No Frills store in Stittsville, Ont. on May 1, said she has always voted for Mr. Poilievre “because he is no-nonsense” and he would work to make housing affordable for her grandchildren.Ashley Fraser/The Globe and Mail Mr. Fanjoy says he was always optimistic he could chip away at Mr. Poilievre’s granite majority. Part of the Tory incumbent‘s mistake, Mr. Fanjoy says, was to take winning the sprawling Ottawa riding for granted. The Liberal knocked on more than 15,000 doors after being selected two years ago, and he did not bump into Mr. Poilievre once. Mr. Fanjoy has never met his rival. “Pierre was barely here. I don’t believe he knocked a single door,” he said. At the tail end of the campaign, the Liberals learned that the Conservatives were getting worried and were sending in staff to shore up their vote. But Mr. Fanjoy had been assiduously knocking on doors for years and said he did not deviate from his strategy of meeting people one-to-one in the final week, as victory looked within his reach. “I knew it was within our grasp for a long time. Winning is a process. We were working the process for two years,” he said. Five hundred volunteers turned up in the first week of the campaign to help Mr. Fanjoy, and the federal Liberal Party weighed in by placing campaign calls from phone banks. Seasoned Ottawa staffers also came on board to lend extra heft. Mr. Fanjoy said he gained fresh momentum after Mark Carney was elected Liberal Leader, boosting the party nationally in the polls, and after U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat of tariffs refocused public attention on the risk from Washington. “I went from having the wind in my face to having the wind at my back,” he said. Open this photo in gallery: Matthew Derrick, with two-year-old Sterling, said he has voted Conservative in the past but voted Liberal this time as he found Mr. Poilievre’s rhetoric too akin to Donald Trump’s.Ashley Fraser/The Globe and Mail Mr. Fanjoy says boundary changes to the huge Ottawa-area riding, where new housing developments are springing up by the month, may have given the Conservatives a small boost on paper. But in a constituency full of commuters to Ottawa, many of them public servants, the prospect of spending cuts and the impact on the economy from tariffs was top of voters’ minds. NDP voters told him they would lend him their vote to ensure Canada had a progressive prime minister to take on Mr. Trump. The sprawling riding is a mix of farms, old-style weatherboard houses and pristine new developments with rows and rows of identikit townhouses and detached homes where Mr. Poilievre has retained many fans. Outside a No Frills supermarket in Stittsville, heading in for provisions, 86-year old Josée Wall said she voted for Mr. Poilievre and always had “because he is no-nonsense” and he would work to make housing affordable for her grandchildren. “He is not going to spend like a drunken sailor,” she added. A short walk from the supermarket are million-dollar homes and, in the other direction, streets of modest prefabricated bungalows. Open this photo in gallery: Jerry Horban walks outside the No Frills in Stittsville on May 1. He voted Conservative in the last election, but says he supported the Liberal Party in this election because he felt the local riding had been neglected by Mr. Poilievre in the campaign.Ashley Fraser/The Globe and Mail Matthew Derrick, a stay-at-home dad with eight children to attend to, was heading into the supermarket to fetch cat food. He said he voted Conservative in the past but voted Liberal this time as he found Mr. Poilievre’s rhetoric too akin to Donald Trump’s. “Anyone tying themselves in with what Trump was saying – that was a major sticking point for us” he said. “It didn’t taste right.” Jerry Horban, an information technology contractor who has lived in the Ottawa suburb of Stittsville for 40 years, voted Conservative at the last election. But he did not support Mr. Poilievre this time. “He neglected us – worrying about the rest of the country; not worrying about Stittsville,” Mr. Horban said. On Stittsville’s main street, flanked on each side by a strip mall and a retirement home, a small weatherboard bungalow stands like a monument to the past. A Canadian flag flies on the vast trimmed lawn, and a phalanx of gnomes guards the entrance. Open this photo in gallery: George Graham stands outside his home on Stittsville's Main Street. He says he has always backed Mr. Poilievre.Ashley Fraser/The Globe and Mail George Graham, 88, has lived there since 1962, and he has seen his area transform from sleepy enclave to a suburb with constant traffic. He has always backed Mr. Poilievre. “I had my sign out there for him. I was Conservative all the way,” he said. But others who voted Conservative in the past cast their ballots for Mr. Fanjoy this time because they felt Mr. Poilievre’s style had changed. “I didn’t like his combativeness. I didn’t like the way he handled himself in Parliament. I found him very aggressive, his unwillingness to work with other parties, all that kind of stuff,” said Sam Brierley, a resident of suburban Riverside South. The sentiment was echoed by retired teacher Shane Guilbeault. “I think there’s been a lot of influence from the U.S. and that kind of attack style,” he said. “He has changed over time and just become more obnoxious.” Meanwhile, in Manotick, Mr. Fanjoy was preparing to wear out another pair of shoes to meet his new constituents. “I want to get around the riding again. Meet with people, businesses, farmers, not-for-profits and listen to what they’d like me to get to work on.”