McGuinty claims victory as Liberals make historyWed, October 10, 2007
By PATRICK MALONEY, SUN MEDIA
Ontario voters tonight chose a handful of broken promises over one ill-advised pledge, allowing the Liberals to shake off their checkered past and re-write provincial history.The errors of Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory, like his divisive school-funding plan, distracted voters from the government record and helped Dalton McGuinty secure the first back-to-back Liberal majority in a lifetime.
The Grits hung onto all four London ridings and also took four more local seats, leaving just two for the Tories. The NDP area campaign ended empty-handed, despite strong showings in Sarnia-Lambton and London-Fanshawe.
As most polls rolled in, the Liberals had a projected 70 seats provincewide, the Tories 25 and the NDP 12.
?We believe this is the greatest province in the most blessed country in the world,? McGuinty told supporters in Ottawa. ?We are proud of our traditions but clearly focused on the future.?
The unpopular pledge to fund all faith-based schools was a self-inflicted wound that quickly put Tory?s campaign on life support. And last night he became the first opposition leader since David Peterson to lose his riding race.
One Conservative insider told Sun Media he knows at least three PC MPPs who warned Tory pre-election about faith-based funding. His response was ?Trust me on this,? the source said.
?He owns this ? period. It was a fiasco,? the source added.
Tory congratulated McGuinty and took ownership of the loss.
?Obviously I am ultimately accountable for this campaign and the results and I accept that accountability,? he told supporters, noting he isn?t leaving politics.
?I intend to continuing to serve the public, the province and the party.?
Talk has swirled that NDP Leader Howard Hampton could soon step down ? speculation that heated up when his frustrations boiled over in a rant at the media last week.
Though his wife, former NDP MPP Shelley Martel, has retired, Hampton may not be done yet considering the party added two more seats to its holdings last night.
At dissolution of the last legislature, the Liberals had 67 seats, the Conservatives 25, New Democrats 10 and one vacant. Four seats have been created, making the Ontario seat total 107.
McGuinty?s 2003 promise to freeze taxes was shattered when he announced the $2.4-billion health tax. But even that didn?t stop the Grit momentum, powered in part by their dominance of riding-rich Southwestern Ontario. There were, however, local exceptions.
For the second straight election, voters in the London region turfed a sitting Cabinet minister when Sarnia-Lambton tonight waved goodbye to Caroline Di Cocco, the Liberal culture minister.
The proposed closure of Lambton?s coal-fired power plant caused her trouble. But Di Cocco?s woes were compounded last week when leaked documents showed the cost of a proposed Sarnia hospital had skyrocketed.
Di Cocco blamed her loss on Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley, who spoke out strongly about the hospital controversy.
Tory MPP Ernie Hardeman won his fourth mandate in Oxford.
Liberal veteran Pat Hoy won easily again in Chatham-Kent-Essex and fellow Grits Maria Van Bommel, Carol Mitchell and John Wilkinson were re-elected in Lambton-Kent-Middlesex, Huron-Bruce and Perth-Wellington, respectively.
The City of London has become something of a Liberal fortress in recent years. Though voters here often change colour ? mirroring provincial trends ? they stayed solidly Grit last night.
The city ridings all stayed Grit red, led by cabinet minister Chris Bentley, considered one of McGuinty?s top deputies, outdistancing PC opponent Allison Graham by a nearly two-to-one margin.
Deb Matthews, a former Liberal party president, was re-elected in London North Centre, besting PC challenger Rob Alder, a former city councillor.
While Steve Peters hit some rough patches, especially during his tumultuous term as agriculture minister, he won his third mandate in Elgin-Middlesex-London by soundly stomping Bill Fehr of the Conservatives.
London-Fanshawe, thought to be a bona fide three-horse race, pitted Liberal MPP Khalil Ramal against Jim Chapman of the Conservatives and Stephen Maynard of the NDP.
Ramal won impressively and one Maynard campaign official blamed Chapman?s showing on the Liberal win.
?We expected it to be a little closer race than it was,? Shawn Lewis said. ?The vote didn?t split three ways, it split two ways.?
Bentley gave much of the credit for the party?s provincewide success to its leader, McGuinty.
?He showed throughout this campaign he really is a leader for the future of Ontario,? he said.
While Tory polled well as a leader against McGuinty, voters recoiled at his school-funding plan. The political fumble could permanently sack the one-time CFL commissioner.
?I'm not sure he can recover enough to run again and be credible,? said University of Western Ontario political scientist Cameron Anderson.
Today?s referendum ? if approved. it would change the way Ontario elects its government ? was decried as too confusing by some voters. Even some scrutineers were frustrated.
One said citizens were totally blindsided by the additional ballot, though Elections Ontario defended its pre-election education program. Scrutineers aren?t allowed to offer voters help at the polls.
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Disappointment sets in
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