Liberals win another majority in Ontario
With just over 4.4 million voters turning out, an all-time low in Ontario, to cast a ballot in the provincial elections, the Liberal Party rolled to its second consecutive majority government winning 71 of the 107 seats available across the province. The majority win means that Dalton McGuinty becomes the first Premier to steer the Liberal Party to a back-to-back majority government in the province since 1937.
Forming the opposition, the Progressive Conservative Party finished the night with fewer seats than they started than last term, after losing a big seat in the Don Valley-West riding.
The NDP party won 10 seats, which is one more than they held in 2003 and gained three points in popular vote, pushing them to over 18 per cent.
Despite gains in both the Liberal and NDP camps, the Green Party were also celebrating after the polls closed. As the results started popping up it became apparent that the party, headed by Frank de Jong, were gaining ground in the polls. Though they didn't manage to win any ridings, the Greens capped the evening by close to tripling their 2003 numbers in the popular vote to just over eight per cent.
In the local races, an almost anti-climactic finish incumbent Liberal MPP Khalil Ramal was re-elected in the London-Fanshawe riding. But the big change came as Conservative Jim Chapman edged out the NDP's candidate Stephen Maynard by just over 400 votes after it was expected that the NDP would present more of a challenge for the Liberals than they ended up doing.
The Grits also powered to a resounding win in the London- West district as incumbent Chris Bentley gained more that 50 per cent of the overall popular vote. The Tories followed in second with approximately half of the remaining voters.
The London-North Centre, rounding out a Liberal sweep of the three London ridings, voted incumbent leader Deb Matthews to her second term in the district. Here, as in London-West, the Conservative Party picked up a solid quarter of the popular vote, keeping the NDP from making gains in any of the three ridings.
Another big portion of the election revolved around the Electoral Reform Referendum that voters took part in, the first referendum to be held in Ontario since 1924. With a minimum of 60 per cent of the popular vote required change the electoral process from the current First Past the Post system to the proposed Mixed-Member Proportional system. But nowhere close to the required number of votes were recorded to change the electoral procedure, and it failed with only 36 per cent support, and gained the majority in only six of the 107 ridings.
There were, however, several relatively large upsets across the province, none larger than Conservative Party Leader John Tory losing to Kathryn Wynne by almost 5,000 votes in the Don Valley- West riding in Toronto. This leaves the Tories with a leader who isn't holding a seat in parliament, and for a party that is facing quite a bit of internal turmoil that can be a dangerous thing for Tory. But you have to give the leader points for going out in style as he made his way over to Wynne's Liberal head-quarters to personally congratulate the Education Minister on her victory in their riding.
Of the 23 Cabinet Ministers who chose to run again in this election, only Caroline Di Cocco, the Minister of Culture, lost her riding in Sarnia-Lambton by over 3,000 votes
Of the 107 seats, only 28 were won by a female party representatives, which is up marginally from the 2003 election when only 26 women won. The increase helped Ontario move into second, behind only Manitoba, when it comes to female representation in provincial politics.
Forming the opposition, the Progressive Conservative Party finished the night with fewer seats than they started than last term, after losing a big seat in the Don Valley-West riding.
The NDP party won 10 seats, which is one more than they held in 2003 and gained three points in popular vote, pushing them to over 18 per cent.
Despite gains in both the Liberal and NDP camps, the Green Party were also celebrating after the polls closed. As the results started popping up it became apparent that the party, headed by Frank de Jong, were gaining ground in the polls. Though they didn't manage to win any ridings, the Greens capped the evening by close to tripling their 2003 numbers in the popular vote to just over eight per cent.
In the local races, an almost anti-climactic finish incumbent Liberal MPP Khalil Ramal was re-elected in the London-Fanshawe riding. But the big change came as Conservative Jim Chapman edged out the NDP's candidate Stephen Maynard by just over 400 votes after it was expected that the NDP would present more of a challenge for the Liberals than they ended up doing.
The Grits also powered to a resounding win in the London- West district as incumbent Chris Bentley gained more that 50 per cent of the overall popular vote. The Tories followed in second with approximately half of the remaining voters.
The London-North Centre, rounding out a Liberal sweep of the three London ridings, voted incumbent leader Deb Matthews to her second term in the district. Here, as in London-West, the Conservative Party picked up a solid quarter of the popular vote, keeping the NDP from making gains in any of the three ridings.
Another big portion of the election revolved around the Electoral Reform Referendum that voters took part in, the first referendum to be held in Ontario since 1924. With a minimum of 60 per cent of the popular vote required change the electoral process from the current First Past the Post system to the proposed Mixed-Member Proportional system. But nowhere close to the required number of votes were recorded to change the electoral procedure, and it failed with only 36 per cent support, and gained the majority in only six of the 107 ridings.
There were, however, several relatively large upsets across the province, none larger than Conservative Party Leader John Tory losing to Kathryn Wynne by almost 5,000 votes in the Don Valley- West riding in Toronto. This leaves the Tories with a leader who isn't holding a seat in parliament, and for a party that is facing quite a bit of internal turmoil that can be a dangerous thing for Tory. But you have to give the leader points for going out in style as he made his way over to Wynne's Liberal head-quarters to personally congratulate the Education Minister on her victory in their riding.
Of the 23 Cabinet Ministers who chose to run again in this election, only Caroline Di Cocco, the Minister of Culture, lost her riding in Sarnia-Lambton by over 3,000 votes
Of the 107 seats, only 28 were won by a female party representatives, which is up marginally from the 2003 election when only 26 women won. The increase helped Ontario move into second, behind only Manitoba, when it comes to female representation in provincial politics.
