The riding of Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock remains loyal to blue, re-electing Progressive Conservative incumbent Laurie Scott for a fifth term.
Scott claimed a predicted easy victory in the predominately rural riding, topping two university political science students: Liberal candidate Brooklynn Cramp-Waldinsperger and the NDP’s Zach Miller. Lynn Therien represented the Green Party.
“It’s hard to express – I’m so excited to be elected…relieved in a way,” said Scott. “It’s a very exciting evening. We had great momentum across the province and I’m ecstatic about it.”
In the 99 polls reporting, Scott received 32,605 votes (56.7 per cent of the vote) while Miller was runner-up with 15,209 votes (26.5 per cent).
Cramp-Waldinsperger finished third with 5,688 votes (9.9 per cent of the vote). Therien managed 2,584 votes (4.5 per cent) followed by Libertarian Gene Balfour (455 votes or 0.8 per cent) and Consensus Ontario candidate Chuck MacMillan (312 votes or 0.5 per cent).
“It was clear from people during the door knocking from the campaign that people wanted change,” said Scott. “I’m very humbled that they put their trust in me again.”
The riding is one of the largest in southern Ontario at nearly 11,000-square kilometres.
Scott was first elected in 2003 and served two terms, winning the 2007 election by nearly 10,000 votes.
However, in 2009, she resigned her seat to allow former PC leader John Tory to run after losing in his hometown riding of Don Valley West in 2007.
But the move failed as Tory lost a March byelection to Liberal candidate Rick Johnson by 906 votes. That race also featured NDP candidate Lyn Edwards and current Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner.
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But two years later, Scott was re-elected and repeated the result in 2014, both times defeating Johnson, earning 45 per cent and 40 per cent of the votes, respectively.
Thursday’s victory will mean Scott will represent the riding with her party in power with a majority government.
“I want to work harder for the people,” she said. “Being in government (in power) I can get more things done, especially for the people who are struggling right now. It means a great deal for me to be able to care for them in a different light in government.”