Thousands of votes were cast in Waterloo Region, Guelph and the surrounding area, but little has changed.
With only one exception, all successful candidates in the area were incumbents. The only case where that isn’t true is in the Wellington-Halton Hills riding, where former Progressive Conservative (PC) MPP Ted Arnott decided not to run. However, the area will stay blue.
Deep roots in Guelph and Kitchener Centre
The Green Party of Ontario held onto their two seats at Queen’s Park.
Leader Mike Schreiner swiftly reclaimed his post in Guelph with the CTV News Decision Desk calling the riding in his favour within 10 minutes of the polls closing on Thursday at 9 p.m.
This will be the third time voters in Guelph have decided to send him to Queen’s Park as their representative at the legislature.
Schreiner claimed 56.9 per cent of the vote by the time all polls had reported their results. His next closest opponent was PC Robert Coole with 23.9 per cent.
Meanwhile, Deputy Green Party Leader Aislinn Clancy was also declared a winner in Kitchener Centre. The CTV News Decision Desk said she had won the riding at 9:12 p.m.
This will be Clancy’s second term at the provincial legislature after she was voted in during the 2023 election.
With all 61 polls reporting, Clancy had garnered 51.4 per cent of the vote. PC Rob Elliott came second with 24.2 per cent followed by Colleen James with 14.3 per cent.
Following the win, Schreiner thanked supporters for helping the pair to victory, but he acknowledged the night was bittersweet. The Greens had been hoping to gain some ground and claim another seat in Parry Sound – Muskoka, but the candidate there, Matt Richter, fell to incumbent PC Graydon Smith.
Despite the disappointment, Schreiner said, “Now is not the time to agonize, but to organize.”
Fife reclaims Waterloo
In a sea of blue and green, only one of Ontario’s New Democrats (NDP) got the nod from local voters. By 11:15 p.m., with 59 out of 61 polls reporting in the riding, Catherine Fife was holding 50.2 per cent of the votes. PC Peter Turkington was a distant second with 27.6 per cent of the vote.
The CTV News Decision Desk called the election in Fife’s favour at 9:11 p.m.
Fife first won her seat in a 2012 by-election.
Ahead of Thursday’s election, Fife received some unlikely support from a political rival. Shefaza Esmail of the Green Party of Ontario urged voters to cast a ballot for the NDP candidate, citing concerns with splitting the vote.
She was greeted by cheers as she walked into the Legion on Thursday night, but she made it clear she didn’t want to make a big deal out of the win.
“People showed up for me, it’s really humbling. It’s very emotional for me,” she told CTV News.
“People did not want to be in this election. There I was at their door, asking for their vote and for a vote of confidence. I have to say, this was an election like no other for me,” she said.
Fife said the most common concerns she heard on the campaign trail regarded tariffs from the United States.
She said she is disappointed the election was called in the first place, but she is prepared to work with Premier-elect Doug Ford.
“We are in unprecedented times. We are going to have to work together across party lines. I’m willing to do that because the economic instability that the tariff threats have caused is very problematic for the whole province. I’m willing to go to work tomorrow, work with the Ford government, to try to find some solutions, try to find some compromises, but also just to put workers first,” she said.
Independent win
An Independent candidate who made history last election also stayed strong. Bobbi Ann Brady was able to retain her seat. She was first elected to Queen’s Park in 2022, and although there have been other Independent MPPs, she was the first Independent MPP who had not previously won a seat as part of a major party.
Before she was elected, Brady had served as the executive assistant to PC MPP Toby Barrett. When Barrett retired, the party’s headquarters decided to ignore the wishes of the local riding and appointed Haldimand County mayor Ben Hewitt as their candidate.
Brady took him on and defeated him. She earned 35 per cent of votes, while Hewitt walked away with 30.4 per cent.
This time around, Brady had 63.7 per cent of the vote by 11:15 p.m. with all polls reporting. Her next closest opponent was PC Amy Martin with 24.5 per cent. Martin is Norfolk County’s mayor and took an unpaid leave of absence during the provincial election campaign.
The CTV News Decision Desk had called the win for Brady by 9:18 p.m. Thursday.
Awash in blue
Elsewhere, PC candidates held strong. Mike Harris Jr. reclaimed his seat in Kitchener-Conestoga, Jess Dixon will continue representing Kitchener South-Hespeler, voters in Brant backed Will Bouma, Brian Riddell got the nod in Cambridge, Lisa Thompson was named as Huron-Bruce’s MPP-elect and Matthew Rae won in Perth-Wellington.
The only fresh face amongst all the MPP-elects in the area is PC Joseph Racinsky.
Racinksy will be Wellington-Halton Hills’ MPP after he received 45.3 per cent of the vote. He’ll be taking over from fellow PC Ted Arnott, who announced he would not seek re-election on Oct. 15, 2024. Arnott was only 27-years-old when he was first elected in 1990 and has served nine terms in the legislature. He worked as the Speaker of the Ontario Legislature since July 2018.
Racinsky has been a Ward 2 councillor in Halton Hills since 2022, when he was the youngest person ever elected to a municipal council at just 20-years-old.
Regional councillors defeated
Two Waterloo Regional councillors unsuccessfully ran in the provincial election.
Rob Deutschmann resigned from regional council in January when he was named as the Liberal candidate in Cambridge.
At the time, he told CTV News he felt he wanted to be ‘all in’ as a candidate.
Colleen James also ran under the Liberal banner in Kitchener Centre, however she did not resign from her post with the region. She took a leave of absence from regional council when the writ was officially called.
Waterloo Regional Council decided to wait for the outcome of the provincial election before they would address what to do with Deutschmann’s vacancy.
Council can choose to fill the role using an appointment process or by calling a by-election.
