By Sean Delaney
After a quickly paced approximate five-week campaign, Ontario’s 41st general election is over, and Kathleen Wynne and her Liberal government have retained power, and added to it.
The Ontario Liberals grabbed 59 seats on Thursday night, easily defeating Tim Hudak’s Progressive Conservative Party, who finished the night with 27 seats, and Andrea Horwath’s New Democrats, who secured 21. Ontario, for the next term will host a strong Liberal majority.
There were no Green MPP’s or independents elected.
Wynne’s Liberals grabbed the majority by adding six seats to the 53 the party held in 2011. Hudak’s Conservatives lost a surprising 10 seats, and Horwath’s NDP moved up four.
In Emery Village, Mario Sergio, who has served as MPP since 1995 when the riding was called Yorkview beat challengers Tom Rakocevic NDP and Karlene Nation PC.
Sergio secured 11,867 votes, while Rakocevic got 10,077 and Nation 2,778.
Liberal support has declined from the 70 per cent seen in 2003.
On the Ontario map, the Liberal party took 38.64 per cent, while the PCs came in at 31.25 per cent – a bit of a closer picture than the seating map. The NDP party ended the night with 23.76 per cent, and the Greens 4.84. Independents accounted for 0.08 per cent.
And it was the city that carried the day for the Liberal Party.
Thirty-nine of their 59 victories came from within the GTA, while just one of the PCs 27 seats did. The NDP managed to secure four GTA seats of their 27.
On the gender side, the Liberals weren’t the most diverse, but carried a number of female MPP’s into Ontario’s government. Of the 59 Liberal seats secured, 21 went to women. The PC party had six women elected out of its 27 seats, while the NDP almost achieved 50/50 with 11 women elected in its 21 seats.
In total, 38 female MPPs were elected, a rise of eight from the 2011 election.