Liberal Mike Colle in tight race for seat

The Toronto riding of EglintonLawrence remains was looking like a tight race.

With 61 out of 77 polls reporting results, veteran Liberal incumbent Michael Colle was neck- and- neck race against Progressive Conservative candidate Robin Martin by the tightest of margins.

Colle has served as the riding’s MPP for 22 years. He was up against rookie NDP candidate Robyn Vilde, Green Party candidate Reuben DeBoer, and Conservative candidate Martin, whom Colle defeated in the 2014 provincial election by a margin of 55 to 34 per cent. Vilde VV received 18.27 per cent a and DeBoer had received 2.53 per cent of the votes. The four hopefuls campaigned around issues of affordable housing and education.

The 114,400 people that reside in Eglinton- Lawrence are made up of the highest percentage of people of Polish ethnic origin in Toronto and the secondhighest percentage of people of Jewish ethnic origin, according to the 2016 census.

During the campaign, Colle was ww a strong advocate for health care access for children and youth, yy free tuition for an in- creased number of students, and the newly- increased $ 15 minimum wage.

PC candidate Martin said she was ww running in the election “so t that everyone has an opportu- nity to reach their full potential,” according to her website.

In the last election, the NDP received just over 7 per cent of the tt votes in the riding. Accord- ing to his website, Vilde is a volunteer organizer with the labour movement’s hospitality sector and a longtime resident of Eglinton- Lawrence.

Colle’s experience in politics goes back over two decades. He was ww first elected as a City of York YYp olitan Councillor Toronto and Councillor a Metro- where ww he was TTC Commis- sioner and Chair of the TTC from 1988 to 1994.

Colle was elected to the Ontario Legislature in 1995, representing the riding of Oakwood, before becoming the MPP for Eglinton- Lawrence in 1999 when the riding was first created.

In the 23 years that he has served at Queen’s Park, Colle has been a proponent of several Private Member’s Bills that have addressed insurance recovery, school safety zones and improved care and awareness for pregnancy and infant loss.