Stanton Wins
By John Swartz
Toss up they said. It’s wasn’t even close. The pre-election polls and predictions from elsewhere didn’t even get the National picture. Bruce Stanton won with 44% of the vote, 7 points higher than the best prediction seen before the election. In order the rest of the field was Gerry Hawes, Angelique Belcourt, Valerie Powell, Stephen Makk and Chris Brown.
Nationally, both Liberals and Conservatives got marginally higher percentages of the vote than predicted, with the Conservative getting the most, but the follow through on seat predictions was considerably off. What made the difference was the GTA, which went virtually red from Pickering to the Hamilton border. That includes the 905 area going red against predictions. Maps of Ontario ridings show the north favoured the NDP, rural Ontario the Conservatives and every large urban area except for Sarnia and Barrie went Liberal (with expected exceptions of Windsor and Hamilton for the NDP).
Here’s how the numbers worked out in Simcoe North:
Stanton 27,112
Hawes 19,140
Belcourt 8,749
Powell 5,820
Makk 1,144
Brown 337
This is the seat allotment for the next parliament:
Liberals 157
Conservatives 121
Bloc Quebec 32
NDP 24
Green 3
Former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould elected as an independent in Vancouver.
(Photos and Video by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia) Former MP Doug Lewis congratulates Bruce Stanton.
