UPDATE: A previous version of this story stated that the Ontario Liberal Party secured eight seats, they actually only secured seven, which means that they lose official party status in the provincial legislature.
CORNWALL, Ontario – The Ontario Progressive Conservative (PC) Party won a majority government in the provincial election on Thursday, June 7, 2018. Locally, Jim McDonell retained his seat in Stormont, Dundas and South Glengarry for the PCs.
“This is great news, we have a Doug Ford PC majority government declared,” said McDonell in a media scrum.
Of his party leader and new Premier elect Doug Ford, McDonell said that Ford had been previously portrayed unfairly in the media.
“He’s not the way he has been portrayed,” said McDonell. “He is a very common sense and laidback person.”
This is the third time that McDonell has been elected the MPP for Stormont, Dundas, and South Glengarry and the first time he will serve in the government at Queen’s Park.
At last check, with 59 of 87 riding polls reporting, McDonell secured18,793 votes out of a total of 31,769 votes cast.
NDP candidates Marc Benoit won 7,280 votes, Heather Megill of the Ontario Liberals secured 4,343 votes, Elaine Kennedy of the Greens took 1,330 and Sabile Trimm of the Libertarian party brought in 289 votes.
McDonell described his vision for Stormont, Dundas, and South Glengarry in 2022 after four years of PC rule.
“I think we’ve lost a lot of business and industry over the years and we need to bring that back,” he said.
McDonell explained that the next steps after this victory was to meet with caucus sometime next week and get a lot of work done over the summer in preparation for the beginning of the new legislature in September.
The NDP story:
NDP candidate Marc Benoit reflected on the campaign at his office on election night.
“This was a building campaign,” Benoit said. “Morale has been low over the past couple of years. In the past 28 days, we have rebuilt, we are relevant again.”
He explained that his campaign started with a budget of $12,000 and that around $2,000 remained.
“If you want to know how to stretch a budget ask the working-class party,” he said.
Benoit credited his team for the hard work they did in helping him over the election process.
“I have a rockstar campaign manager,” Benoit said.
The Liberal story:
At Heather Megill’s campaign headquarters, she reflected on the campaign as a learning experience.
“One thing I learned is that everyone needs help,” she said. “Our number one questions coming into this office was about ODSP.”
“This was a life changing experience, it wasn’t at all like I thought it would be,” said Megill. “It was very touching.”
Other election facts:
- This election marked the first time the Ontario Green Party won a seat in the legislature, with their leader Mike Schreiner taking the riding of Guelph.
- The Ontario Liberal Party took seven seats, which means that they will lose Official Party Status in the legislature.
