[URBAN NOTE] "Liberal wave sweeps GTA in Ontario election, leaving Tories in the cold"

[rfmcdonald]

The Toronto Star's David Rider notes the collapse of the Progressive Conservatives in the Greater Toronto Area, with its 47 seats. This was a trend repeated across urban Ontario, incidentally.

Before the election, in the minority parliament, the Liberals had 30 GTA seats, the PCs had 11 and the NDP six.

The GTA helped the Liberals cinch a majority government, adding nine GTA seats to their total while the Tories dropped seven in the region and the NDP shed two.

Doug Holyday, the former Toronto deputy mayor who got the Tories a coveted Toronto toehold in a byelection last year by defeating council mate Peter Milczyn, lost a rematch to his Liberal rival in Etobicoke-Lakeshore.

The Tories’ showing this time was worse than in 2011, when Hudak failed to build on federal Conservative momentum, and the party failed both to break through in Toronto and to win new 905-belt seats that PC strategists had thought winnable.

Holyday’s byelection win last year gave the party reason to rejoice, proclaiming the win a Conservative beachhead in the city. But Thursday’s results saw those hopes vanish.