PC Babikian unseats Liberal incumbent Wong

Ontario PC Party candidate Aris AAo ugh- Babikian Agincourt won in Thursday Scarbor- night, besting Liberal incumbent Soo Wong and taking the riding for the Tories for the first time in decades with a commanding lead.

“People were telling us, ‘ We want ww change. We are tired. We don’t want Kathleen Wynne anymore,’ aa ” Babikian, a retired citizenship judge and longtime leader in the Armenian community, told the Star. “I am quite qq proud that they put their trust in me.”

While the PC Party had been squaring off against the NDP in other Scarborough ridings, the Scarborough- Agincourt race became a Conservative- Liberal matchup after controversy surrounded NDP candidate Tasleem Riaz.

Wong was buoyed in the days before the election by leader Kathleen Wynne’s late- campaign decision to concede she would not be premier while encouraging support of Liberal candidates, her campaign team said. It wouldn’t be enough.

As in much of Scarborough, which ww lacks ready access to rap- id transit, the issue of whether to extend subways remained a hot topic. A light- rail line along Sheppard Ave. E. that was planned and agreed to between the city and province in 2012 would ww stretch from the existing Don Mills subway stop through the southern portion of the Scarborough- Agincourt riding to Morningside Ave. That plan, however, has been stalled for several years. Both Babikian and Wong supported a subway.

The Scarborough- Agincourt race plagued NDP Leader Andrea Horwath last week when the PC Party revealed posts on Riaz’s RR Facebook page from sev- eral years ago that included an Adolf Hitler quote. Riaz has said she didn’t remember posting the Hitler meme and that she would ww not have done so inten- tionally, denouncing Hitler’s words and actions.