TORIES OUSTED BY LIBERAL MAJORITY
Harper quits as Conservative leader after 9 years as PM
The Liberal juggernaut launched in Atlantic Canada roared through Ontario as the party opened up early, substantial leads in a province considered among the biggest battlegrounds of the election.
The Liberals were leading in Ontario’s big cities, but also outside the urban centres, especially in the suburban 905 area around Toronto that helped propel Stephen Harper’s Conservatives to a majority in 2011.
Finance Minister Joe Oliver was in a tight race, with only 10 polls reporting, with his Liberal foe, Marco Mendicino.
Justin Trudeau’s Liberals took the lead in previously Conservative strongholds that include Whitby, Burlington and Markham, and were leading in the NDP held riding of Thunder BayRainy River.
Voters in the critical Greater Toronto Area appeared to be dissolving their four- year- long contract with the Conservatives Monday night, returning the Liberals to the region in huge numbers and propelling the party to power.
In the downtown Toronto core, an apparent collapse of NDP support also helped to push the Liberals over the top. Liberal incumbent Adam Vaughan beat the NDP’s Olivia Chow in Spadina- Fort York in one of the province’s most hotly contested fights.
As early provincial results began to come in, the Liberals were leading across the region, both in Toronto proper and in the suburbs.
Despite having campaigned with native sons Doug and Rob Ford in the west- end Toronto area of Etobicoke twice in the past week, the Conservatives lost both ridings of Etobicoke- Lakeshore and Etobicoke Centre to the Liberals.
Incumbent Conservatives Michael Chong, in Wellington Halton Hills, and Peter Kent, in Thornhill, were among the handful that held on to their seats. Cabinet ministers Julian Fantino, Chris Alexander and Joe Oliver were behind in early returns.
To understand what is happening in the GTA, you have to look back at the dynamics of the 2011 election, when the Conservatives swept the region in spectacular fashion.
In Mississauga and Brampton, for example, the party took every seat, whereas in 2008 they only had one. The party also pierced several elusive outer Toronto ridings, such as Eglinton- Lawrence, where Oliver was elected.
Conservative party insiders point out that winning many of those ridings was because of the unique circumstances of the time — the NDP was much stronger then under late leader Jack Layton, creating vote splits.
At the same time, then-Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff failed to capture the support of traditional party supporters — some of them voted Conservative to prevent NDP wins in Ontario. Ignatieff lost his own riding of Etobicoke- Lakeshore — Conservative Bernard Trottier wound up holding it for only four years.