Ontario byelections: Progressive Conservatives win in Milton, Lambton-Kent-Middlesex
Premier Doug Ford's Progressive Conservative candidates won both Ontario byelections by convincing margins.
PC candidate Zee Hamid, who has Liberal roots, won by more than 2,400 votes, or nine percentage points, over Liberal Galen Naidoo Harris in the riding of Milton, just west of Mississauga.
Polls and observers suggested Milton would have been a tighter race as the Liberals looked to make inroads in the 905 corridor around Toronto that the Tories have dominated the last two elections.
“I feel great,” Hamid said after his win. “I think it's an affirmation of the great work that our PC Party is doing in Ontario and people voted to continue that.”
Fellow PC candidate Steve Pinsonneault drew 57 per cent of the votes in the Tory stronghold of Lambton-Kent-Middlesex.
Ford celebrated the wins with Hamid at his victory party in Milton.
“We're fortunate, we're blessed, but we're very humbled about the victory,” Ford said.
“We couldn't ask for two better candidates than Zee and Steve.”
The Liberals finished securely in second in both byelections with the Opposition New Democrats coming in a distant third.
“Tonight's results in Milton and Lambton-Kent-Middlesex send a strong message: Bonnie Crombie and Ontario's Liberals are the only alternative to Doug Ford,” the Ontario Liberal Party said in a statement.
“Ontario Liberals will continue to hold the Ford Conservatives accountable for choosing to reward their rich insider friends instead of fighting for the real people of Ontario.”
Milton has been vacant since cabinet minister Parm Gill resigned in February to join the federal Conservatives.
Hamid, a three-term Milton councillor, donated to the Liberals as recently as 2022 and unsuccessfully sought a federal Liberal nomination in 2015.
Farther southwest, Lambton-Kent-Middlesex was held since 2011 by Monte McNaughton, who served in Opposition for the Progressive Conservatives. McNaughton, a cabinet member, was seen as a rising star on Ford's team before he resigned last October.
Liberal candidate Cathy Burghardt-Jesson finished more than 9,000 votes behind Pinsonneault, a Chatham-Kent councillor, as she collected 23 per cent of the votes.
Ford paid Milton a lot of attention during the byelection and in the lead-up to it, with announcements on GO Transit service and Highway 413, and has had many cabinet ministers and other caucus members canvassing there.
While a Tory loss in Milton would not have affected Ford's majority, the party already lost a seat in a byelection last year that had been held by another cabinet minister and did not want a repeat.
The byelection marked the first test for Crombie, who was crowned Liberal leader in December. The former Mississauga mayor considered then decided against running for the Milton seat herself.
“The path to victory is going to be won through the 905, as it has been for the Conservatives, and so holding onto this seat and doing so quite convincingly at this stage should be really emboldening for the Conservatives,” said Cameron Anderson, a political science professor at Western University.
“I see a not bad showing for the Liberals at just under 40 per cent, but clearly not a breakthrough for the Liberals and clearly not a repudiation of the governing party at this time.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 2, 2024.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING NEWS 'A horrible way to start the summer': 3 killed in serious boat crash on lake north of Kingston, Ont.
Three people were killed and five others were injured Saturday night following a boat crash on the Buck Bay area of Bobs Lake, north of Kingston, Ont., the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) said.
Walmart, Costco refusing to sign grocery code of conduct 'untenable': industry minister
Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne says it's 'untenable' for 'smaller players' like Walmart and Costco to delay signing on to the government- and industry-led grocery code of conduct, now that industry giant Loblaw has agreed to do so.
Fall River residents allowed to return after suspicious package deemed no threat to the public: N.S. RCMP
The Nova Scotia RCMP had some Fall River residents evacuate their homes for a number of hours to investigate a suspicious package which appeared on someone’s doorstep.
French security forces work to regain control of airport highway in violence-scorched New Caledonia
Using armoured vehicles and backhoes to shove aside charred barricades, French security forces worked Sunday to retake control of the highway to the international airport in violence-scorched New Caledonia, shuttered because of deadly unrest wracking the French Pacific archipelago where indigenous people have long sought independence from France.
The secret Italian lakes that most tourists don't know about
Italy has dozens of secret smaller lakes that boast superb scenery, unknown to mass tourism, where locals get together on day trips and enjoy picnics.
Signs of Alzheimer’s were everywhere. Then his brain improved
Blood biomarkers of telltale signs of early Alzheimer’s disease in the brain of his patient, 55-year-old entrepreneur Simon Nicholls, had all but disappeared in a mere 14 months.
VIDEO Born without front legs, this dog has been inspiring the world for 3 years: Dresden farm owner
A sanctuary dedicated to animals with disabilities is celebrating the third birthday of one of its most popular residents.
Canadian immigration asks medical worker fleeing Gaza if he treated Hamas fighters
Lawyers are questioning Canada’s approach to screening visa applications for people in Gaza with extended family in Canada after one applicant, a medical worker, was asked whether he had treated members of Hamas.
Helicopter carrying Iran's hard-line president apparently crashes in foggy, mountainous region
A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country's foreign minister and other officials apparently crashed in the mountainous northwest reaches of Iran on Sunday, sparking a massive rescue operation in a fog-shrouded forest as the public was urged to pray.