Liberals win in Ottawa-Vanier, Orléans
Candidates sprang to early leads in both Ottawa-Orléans and Ottawa-Vanier
The Ontario Liberals received two electoral shots in the arm on Thursday as Stephen Blais and Lucille Collard easily won byelections to retain long-held seats for the party in the neighbouring Ottawa- Orléans and Ottawa-Vanier ridings.
Those victories increased Liberal seats in the legislature to eight among 124 overall.
The Progressive Conservative government of Premier Doug Ford still holds a solid majority with 73 seats. The NDP, led by Andrea Horwath, has official Opposition status with 40. There are also one Green MPP, party leader Mike Schreiner in Guelph riding, and two independents.
“There’s a lot of work ahead, of course. We’ve got the convention to elect a new leader, so that will be important work,” Collard said. “After that, we’ll be continuing the construction of our party. We need to bring in more people, we need to have many, many, many more conversations with all the residents of Ontario. We’re going to rebuild the party that’s going to be very strong, that people can identify with, so I’m very confident that the Liberal party is in no way at its end, that it’s regaining momentum.”
Momentum was on the two Liberals’ side almost as soon as the polls officially closed on Thursday night. Within 20 minutes and with just a half-dozen polls reporting, both Collard and Blais had substantial leads over their closest competitors: Myriam Djilane of the NDP and Natalie Montgomery of the Conservatives, respectively.
“I think you have to talk to some families in Orléans to decide or to understand what motivated their vote,” said Blais, who has served as city councillor in Cumberland ward for the past decade and before that as a school board trustee.
“We worked very hard for six months, talking to residents about what was important to them, and obviously I’ve been working very hard for 15 years, delivering real results for residents in Orléans, from education to infrastructure and services. I think it’s a combination of our positive message both as a party and locally in Orléans.”
The vacancies being filled Thursday resulted from the resignations of incumbent Liberals Natalie Des Rosiers in Ottawa-Vanier and Marie-France Lalonde in Ottawa-Orléans. Des Rosiers became the principal of Massey College in Toronto, while Lalonde won election to Parliament in Orléans riding in the 2019 federal election.
Ottawa-Vanier had been solidly Liberal for more than half a century, the only break in that streak being a 12-vote victory by Conservative Jules Morin over Liberal Horace Racine in 1967 in what was then called Ottawa East.
Thursday’s balloting was the third in a span of four years for voters in the riding. Des Rosiers first claimed her seat in the legislature in a 2016 byelection resulting from the retirement of former MPP Madeleine Meilleur, and she held the riding in the 2018 general election by a margin of more than 6,000 votes over the NDP’s Lyra Evans.
“Look at the last election. How many of our colleagues were in ‘safe’ seats that aren’t there now? So winning elections is about earning people’s trust and then working hard all the way through election day, ” interim Liberal leader John Fraser said.
“Take a look at the results. The results are some of our strongest in the ridings. I think it’s fair to say the message to Doug Ford is, ‘Your priorities are not the priorities of Ontario’s families.’ They don’t want larger class sizes, they don’t want new licence plates, they don’t want less support for vulnerable elders, they don’t want buck-a-beer. They just want good schools, good hospitals, a plan for the environment, a plan for jobs so they can have a job and their kids can have jobs.”
With all but a couple of polls reporting, Collard had more than 10,000 votes — more than half the ballots cast. Djilane had about 5,000 votes, or 25 per cent, while PC candidate Patrick Mayangi trailed well behind in third place with 2,300 votes, or about 11 per cent of the total.
Also running in Ottawa-Vanier in this byelection were: Benjamin Koczwarski, Green party; Ken Lewis, Libertarian; J. Justin O’Donnell, Alliance: Above Znoneofthe (formerly Sheldon Bergson), None of the Above Direct Democracy party; and independent Julie Fiala.
The win by Blais was the fifth in a row for the Liberals in Ottawa-Orléans, but the margin of victory was up substantially. In 2018, Lalonde prevailed with 39 per cent of the votes to 35 for PC Cameron Montgomery. This time Blais collected more than 14,000 votes (55 per cent), with Natalie Montgomery a distant second at 5,800 (23 per cent).
Manon Parrot finished third for the NDP with 15 per cent, followed by the Greens’ Andrew West. Also running were Libertarian JeanSerge Brisson, Alliance’s Gerrie Huenemoerder, Pauper Party’s John Turmel and Keegan Bennett for None of the Above Direct Democracy Party.