ONTARIO–Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne received a strong endorsement as the Ontario Liberal Party was returned to power with a strong majority. Leader of the Official Opposition Tim Hudak resigned as leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party late Thursday evening as it became clear that his party were the major losers, dropping 10 seats.
The Ontario Liberals secured 59 seats to capture a majority that took many by surprise. The Liberals only lost Sudbury and Windsor West while picking up four ridings from the Tories and two Toronto area ridings from the NDP. The NDP in turn picked up Sudbury and held onto most of the North, with Thunder Bay-Atikokan and Sault Ste. Marie staying red. One of the big surprises of the night was the increase in NDP vote across the province, up 1.2 percent from 2011, despite the left turn in the Liberal platform and the recent right turn of Andrea Horwath’s NDP. The big loser of the evening was clearly Mr. Hudak, whose party failed to pick up any seats from the other parties and dropped 10 seats, six to the Liberals and four to the NDP.
Algoma-Manitoulin stayed solidly in the orange camp, with incumbent MPP Mike Mantha being returned to Queen’s Park with 53.36 percent of the vote (14,172) while the Liberal’s Craig Hughson garnered 24.49 percent (6,504) and the Progressive Conservative’s Jib Turner came in with 17.28 percent (4,589). The Green’s Alexandra Zalucky captured 3.12 percent (828) and the Libertarian’s Richard Hadidian secured 1.75 percent (464).
“You voted for jobs, you voted for growth. Thank you for voting to build Ontario up,” Premier Wynne said during her victory speech before a packed crowd at Toronto’s downtown Sheraton Centre. “We are going to build Ontario up for everyone in this province, everyone. We’re not going to leave anyone behind.”
Voter turnout improved slightly in the 2014 election, rising to 51 percent over 2011’s 48 percent, the lowest in Ontario history.
