Coverage of five local ridings
Parachute candidate takes riding previously held by Michael Harris
It was a tight race in Kitchener-Conestoga, but Mike Harris Jr. ultimately prevailed in a riding that’s always voted Progressive Conservative.
With 48 of 50 polls reporting, Conservative Mike Harris Jr. was leading by 610 votes over New Democrat Kelly Dick.
Before polls closed Thursday, researchers at Wilfrid Laurier University predicted KitchenerConestoga was leaning Conservative, which is how the riding has voted since its formation in 2011. The Liberals last won the riding in 2007, in its previous incarnation
The riding saw its share of controversy in the lead-up to this election.
First, the popular incumbent, Conservative MPP Michael Harris, was abruptly removed as the candidate in April — less than two months before voting day. He was booted out of the party over flirtatious texts he sent six years earlier.
Conservative leader Doug Ford opted not to let the local riding association decide on a replacement. Confusingly, he chose to parachute in a candidate with the same name as the incumbent.
Harris Jr., son of the former Ontario premier, was appointed as the Conservatives’ Kitchener-Conestoga nominee after having earlier failed to win the Conservative nomination in neighbouring Waterloo.
Harris, a 33-year-old father of five, is running for office for the first time. His work experience includes running a failed yogurt business in Waterloo, working at a blue jean store and Bass Pro Shop, and selling security software for Route1, a tech company chaired by his father.
The NDP’s Dick has more than three decades of experience as a labour organizer, and is an executive on the board of the Waterloo Regional Labour Council. The New Democrats have never finished better than third since the riding was created.
Joe Gowing ran under the Liberal banner. He’s a banker and former trustee on the Waterloo Catholic District School Board. He was trailing a distant third.
The Green party’s Bob Jonkman ran a campaign that focused on environmental issues, with a platform that included subsidies for alternative energy and a commitment to expand the Greenbelt into local farmland.
Libertarian Daniel Benoy and Consensus Ontario’s Dan Holt were also candidates.
Kitchener-Conestoga stands apart in several ways. It’s a sprawling riding that’s part suburban, including the southwest corner of Kitchener, and part rural, encompassing the townships of Wilmot, Wellesley and Woolwich.
The riding has higher incomes, less poverty and a conservative base that seems to reflect its unique characteristics.
Kitchener-Conestoga has a young population, with more children than any local riding and fewer seniors than most. Its households are the largest in the region. Its residents are far more likely to live in detached homes, and far more likely to own those homes.
In the riding, 76 per cent of all dwellings are single detached homes, significantly higher than any local riding or Ontario at 54 per cent. This reflects its rural population; apartments and townhomes are fewer in the countryside.
Only 15 per cent of households are renters in Kitchener-Conestoga, which is half the rental rate of Ontario or any other local riding.
Owning a residence requires an income and residents have that. Household incomes are strong at a median of $95,323 which is $11,506 higher than any other local riding. Compared to other ridings, far fewer households spend 30 per cent or more of their income on shelter.
Poverty is much lower than other local ridings or Ontario. The riding’s higher incomes, low poverty and strong home ownership point to a self-reliant population. Other census findings point to the same.
In Kitchener-Conestoga, people are more likely to be working than in any other local riding, with 73 per cent participating in the workforce. They earn a greater share of their income from jobs, compared to other local ridings.
Manufacturing employs more in the riding than any other industry, at 15 per cent of the workforce. That’s in line with other local ridings except Waterloo where fewer people work in factories.
Kitchener-Conestoga has achieved its prosperity despite a lesser level of education. Just over half the adult population has earned a credential from a college or university. That’s a middling education rate among five local ridings and it’s below the Ontario education rate.