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rfmcdonald1. As it happened, voters in the Ontario general election returned the Liberal Party under Dalton McGuinty s to power with a majority government, with 71 seats out of 107 and 42% of the popular vote. The Progressive Conservatives came second with 26 seats and 31% of the vote, and the social-democratic New Democratic Party came a more distant third with 10 seats and nearly 17% of the vote. Broadly speaking, the Liberals did quite well in the Greater Toronto Area, eastern Ontario, and southwestern Ontario, while the Progressive Conservatives did a good job in the 905 region of Toronto suburbs, and the New Democratic Party returned most of its members from some downtown Toronto ridings where they have a strong base and from ridings in northern Ontario hit hard by depopulation and economic decline. Curiously, the NDP nearly lost its traditional ridings in the blue-collar city of Hamilton to the Liberal Party, while the upstart Green Party of Ontario tripled its votes and seems to have attracted voters from the right-of-centre Progressive Conservatives.
2. Perhaps unfortunately, in my riding of Davenport incumbent Liberal Tony Ruprecht was re-elected, though if last night's television coverage can be believed he was re-elected by a small margin than in 2003. Win some, lose some.
3. The referendum question on mixed member proportional representation at the provincial level in Ontario failed miserably, with barely more than 38% of the voters supporting the measure alongside 5 ridings out of 107--compare this to the overall 60% supermajority of voters and 60 out of 107 ridings required for the measure to pass. A variety of news sources, like the Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, and MacLean's carry extended commentary. Proponents of MMP make an excellent point in complaining that the referendum question was rather low-profile and could have benefitted from greater publicity. They lose me completely, though, when they complain that the neutral electoral bodies didn't actively propagandize on MMP's behalf or patronize opponents by saying that they just didn't understand.
4. On a side note, not only did the Progressive Conservatives under John Tory lose, but John Tory himself was defeated in the electoral riding of Don Valley West by the imcunbent, Education Minister Kathleen Wynne. In his televised speech last night conceding the election, Tory said that he hoped to continue in the party leadership. Since then, he may have changed his mind, if only because it's open to question whether the Progressive Conservatives want to keep a man who lost the election for them at their helm. It's not the first major political gaffe he's made, incidentally; Tory was also responsible for a attack ad on Jean Chrétien prepared for the 1993 federal election that seem to mock Chrétien's palsied face and contributed to the federal Progressive Conservatives' crushing defeat and eventual oblivion.
2. Perhaps unfortunately, in my riding of Davenport incumbent Liberal Tony Ruprecht was re-elected, though if last night's television coverage can be believed he was re-elected by a small margin than in 2003. Win some, lose some.
3. The referendum question on mixed member proportional representation at the provincial level in Ontario failed miserably, with barely more than 38% of the voters supporting the measure alongside 5 ridings out of 107--compare this to the overall 60% supermajority of voters and 60 out of 107 ridings required for the measure to pass. A variety of news sources, like the Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, and MacLean's carry extended commentary. Proponents of MMP make an excellent point in complaining that the referendum question was rather low-profile and could have benefitted from greater publicity. They lose me completely, though, when they complain that the neutral electoral bodies didn't actively propagandize on MMP's behalf or patronize opponents by saying that they just didn't understand.
4. On a side note, not only did the Progressive Conservatives under John Tory lose, but John Tory himself was defeated in the electoral riding of Don Valley West by the imcunbent, Education Minister Kathleen Wynne. In his televised speech last night conceding the election, Tory said that he hoped to continue in the party leadership. Since then, he may have changed his mind, if only because it's open to question whether the Progressive Conservatives want to keep a man who lost the election for them at their helm. It's not the first major political gaffe he's made, incidentally; Tory was also responsible for a attack ad on Jean Chrétien prepared for the 1993 federal election that seem to mock Chrétien's palsied face and contributed to the federal Progressive Conservatives' crushing defeat and eventual oblivion.
