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
'Looking over our shoulders': A killing looms large in a little B.C. town
Something shifted in the pretty little village of Lumby, B.C., after Tatjana Stefanski vanished. It used to be the sort of place where parents let their kids roam free or play in the local creek, but everything has changed.
Toronto man falls off his chair after seeing $70M Lotto Max win in his bank account
A Toronto man who won $70 million in a recent Lotto Max draw literally fell off his chair when he saw the funds in his bank account.
Montreal-area high school students protest 'sexist' dress code
Students at Curé-Antoine-Labelle High School near Montreal are protesting after they say their school's administration started pushing what they call a 'sexist' dress code.
Officer who arrested Scottie Scheffler is being disciplined for not having bodycam activated
The Kentucky police officer who arrested top-ranked golfer Scottie Scheffler outside the PGA Championship is receiving “corrective action” for failing to have his body-worn camera activated.
'I won't stop,' Celine Dion says in trailer for upcoming doc about her health woes
Celine Dion's fans are getting a first glimpse of the superstar's struggle with a rare neurological disorder in an emotional trailer for an upcoming documentary about her career and life.
Air travel is expensive. WestJet wants the government to do more to change that
WestJet is asking the federal government to put measures in place to lower ticket costs for travellers, but questions remain on who would foot the bill.
Hundreds have applied for this 'adventurer' job in Banff National Park
Coined as Banff's 'ultimate summer job,' the Moraine Lake Bus Company says hundreds of people from across the world have applied for its adventurer position.
Ottawa police investigating death of a gosling in Kanata
Ottawa police are investigating after someone allegedly stomped on a gosling in Kanata. Police say it appears that Canada geese laid eggs in the area, 'and on May 21, a suspect stomped on one of the hatched babies.'
Treasury Board president urges managers to be flexible on exemptions for new 3-day office mandate
The president of the Treasury Board is standing by the federal government's new hybrid office mandate for federal public servants, but is urging managers to be flexible for staff requiring exemptions.