Conservatives Win Majority
By John Swartz
The election nobody wanted, at this time, and called with the excuse of defending against threats of tariff imposition by the United States for which the province has little leverage, is over. Early returns indicate the Ontario PC party will have a majority government and Jill Dunlop has won the Simcoe North Riding.
With one of the riding’s polls still to report Dunlop had 24,620 votes, or 51.8%. Walter Alvarez-Bardales had 13,008 for the Liberals, Jordi Malcolm 4,703 for the NDP, Chris Carr 3,118 for the Green Party, Dave Brunelle 1,529 for the New Blue Party and Bill Joslin 569 for the Libertarians.
With 98% of riding results reported in the province, the conservatives won or were leading in 79 ridings, The NDP will likely hold on as leaders of the opposition with 25 seats. The Liberals will have 14 seats, Green Party with 2 and one independent will have a seat. A majority is realized with 63 seats.
NDP candidate Jordi Malcolm was reached by phone, having returned to her studies in Ottawa.
“I’m disappointed with the results, but it is what it is. I think we put up a good fight. And I’ve had a lot of people tell me today they were just really happy to see the youth being represented in this campaign. What’s important is we made progress,” Malcolm said.
Walter Alvarez-Bardales could not be reached and Dunlop’s campaign did not respond with information about where the campaign post-election gathering would be.
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia) Main: Doug Ford at Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital, October 2023