Ontario records lowest voter turnout in election history

While the Progressive Conservatives may have won a sweeping victory Thursday night, a large majority of Ontarians decided not to bother heading to the polls.

The province recorded the lowest voter turnout in history during the 2022 election, with just about 43.5 per cent of eligible voters casting a ballot according to preliminary Elections Ontario results.

Of the just over 10.7 million registered voters in the province, this equals just over 4.6 million votes cast.

That's about 13.5 percentage points lower than the 2018 provincial election turnout.

The last time voter turnout was below 50 per cent was in 2011, when just 48 per cent of Ontario residents over the age of 18 voted.

No other time in Ontario history has the voter turnout fallen that low.

Vandana Kattar, a former strategist in the Prime Minister's Office, attributed the low turnout to a lack of engagement between politicians and Ontario residents, which may have led to a lack of motivation come election day.

"I find that voters didn't understand what they were voting for," she said during CTV News' Ontario election special on Thursday. "I think more so than negative politics, people don't want to hear what the other guy isn't going to do. They want to hear what you are going to do for you. And that goes back to not getting your message out and not sharing it"

PCs WON 40.8 PER CENT OF THOSE VOTES

According to the preliminary results, Doug Ford's Progressive Conservatives won with just over 1.9 million votes, leading to 83 seats in the legislature.

The New Democratic Party, who formed Ontario's Official Opposition Thursday night, held onto 23.7 per cent of the votes (31 seats) while the liberals gained a bit of ground with 23.6 per cent of the votes (eight seats).

The Green Party obtained about six per cent of votes, resulting in one seat in the legislature.

Speaking to reporters in Etobicoke on Friday morning, Ford didn't seem concerned by the low turnout, reittering that Ontarians made a strong choice on election day.

"I think its pretty clear the people gave us a mandate with 83 seats and we're going to focus on our mandate. We travelled across this province for the last four to five weeks, setting a clear direction" 

Ford also said that he would not be focusing on election reform, an item that other parties touched on in their campaign platforms. He said the system has worked "for over 100 and some odd years."

"It is going to continue to work that way," he told reporters.