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'I'm banged up, I’m bruised up': Essex MP ready to get back to work after horseback riding accident

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Windsor, Ont. -

Essex Conservative MP Chris Lewis has had great success over the past two elections, but has also suffered a few bouts of really bad luck.

The MP, who was re-elected with 41 per cent of the vote Monday, is also recovering from an Election Day mishap while horseback riding with his wife.

Around 4 p.m. Monday, Lewis and his wife Allison were riding at the farm when he says his horse just took off.

“He got spooked and kind of took off across the field at a very high rate of speed and I fell off,” Lewis recalls.

“My wife came over on her horse and said ‘what are you doing? Get up!’ I was like, ‘ok,’” he says through laughter, knowing getting up off the ground wasn’t going to be an easy task.

“I’m banged up, I’m bruised up, but it could have been a whole lot worse,” says Lewis, who was in hospital Tuesday, suffering from a broken bone in his hand, four broken ribs, a broken bone in his foot, a torn rotator cuff and a nasty gash on the right side of his face. “It’s going to take a lot more than that to stop me.”

Instead of seeking immediate medical attention and likely riding on a bit of adrenaline, Lewis went to a small, volunteer “thank-you” event. He was forced to cancel his planned media availability and woke up the next day in what he describes as “a lot of pain.”

He went to the hospital on Tuesday to get patched up, walking away with a cast on his arm and some visible bruising and cuts on his face.

This, after a mishap in the days leading up to the previous election in 2019, when he was at his barn on the family farm. He says on that occasion, he lost his balance and fell about 20 feet onto a trailer hitch, leaving him with “critical” injuries. He went to Erie Shores hospital, where he received treatment for two broken ribs and a serious puncture wound requiring 22 stitches.

During this incident, he broke a few of the same ribs.

“I think the next election, my team is going to wrap me in bubble wrap,” he jokes.

He’s been getting lots of calls to wish him well in his recovery, but also quite a few messages congratulating him on the outcome of the election.

Lewis says he’s ready to shed the “rookie” label and get back to work in Ottawa.

”Thank you to every person of Essex for trusting in me to carry your voices back to Ottawa. We all know how much work there is to be done there,” he says.

His top priorities include ensuring the proper COVID-relief for people and businesses struggling to stay afloat, and also flood mitigation and protecting the local tourism sector in Essex County.

“It’s time for unity and working across the aisle, providing smart solutions for the people of Essex to propel us as a country for going forward,” says Lewis.

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