Conservatives recapture riding

Although it may be a new face, it didn’t look as though it would be a new party in the Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry seat.

Eric Duncan, the 31-year-old openly gay Conservative appeared headed for the win in commanding fashion, earning 61.2 per cent of the vote as of 10:10 p.m. with 15 out of 250 polls reporting.

The victory didn’t come as a surprise as on election day Duncan polled at 43.7 per cent of the vote with a 89 per cent chance of winning, according to polling website 338Canada.

This is the sixth consecutive election victory for the Conservative party with longtime MP Guy Lauzon enjoying five of them. Lauzon stepped away this election and Duncan took over as a young but seasoned politician.

Duncan was elected a municipal councillor in North Dundas at the age of 18 and elected mayor in 2010 at the age of 22.

Although it has been Tory territory in recent years, Liberal Bob Kilger held the rural Eastern Ontario seat for 16 years before Lauzon.

The Liberal candidate, Heather Megill, a longtime elementary school teacher, teachers union organizer and retired army reservist, looked to finish a distant second with 22 per cent of the vote late Monday evening.

Megill is a familiar face in local politics, having run for the Ontario Liberal Party in last year’s provincial election, as well as for Cornwall council a few months later — she had also run in prior municipal elections.

NDP candidate Kelsey Catherine Schmitz had 11.1 per cent of the vote, Green party candidate Raheem Aman had 3.4 per cent and People’s Party of Canada candidate Sabile Trimm had 2.2 per cent.