Durham Region re-elects many familiar faces to represent them in Ottawa

Durham has many familiar faces heading back to Ottawa after Monday’s election.

Residents in the five ridings remained divided, voting in three Liberals and two Conservatives.

For the sixth straight federal election, Oshawa remains blue. Conservative Colin Carrie, who has held the seat since 2004, was voted back in to represent the city.

“It’s incredibly humbling when you know that your community has elected you six times in a row, but I think it tells what we’ve been listening to at the doors, like the issues of affordability, young people worried about the Canadian dream — are they going to be getting ahead,” said Carrie.

The Liberals retained the neighbouring Whitby riding, which turned independent when Celina Caesar-Chavannes left the party. Ryan Turnbull defeated Conservative Todd McCarthy by over 5,000 votes.

“I’ve worked my whole life towards making a bigger impact in our society and our community and so this is a great fulfillment of that,” Turnbull said. “I actually get to create policy on a national level and advocate for the people of Whitby and I’m inspired by that. I’m honoured by it.”

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“I’m just so proud to have had the opportunity to have engaged with thousands of our fellow citizens here in Whitby, to have had great conversations. It was a listening and advocacy experience and I congratulate the Liberal candidate for winning Whitby,” said McCarthy.

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Ajax is once again red. Liberal candidate Mark Holland won by a comfortable margin, getting more than double the votes of his closet opponent.

This is Holland’s fifth term in six elections.

“I’m overwhelmed,” he said. “This is an incredible result locally. It’s the best that we’ve had and just an incredible team. When you put your heart into a job to get that back to you, it’s incredibly uplifting and makes you want to keep working hard.”

Tom Dingwall, the Conservative candidate in Ajax, said the party would “build off” its successes.

“We’ll analyze and try and correct our mistakes,” Dingwall said.

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Voters in the Pickering-Uxbridge and Durham ridings also brought back their incumbents, Liberal Jennifer O’Connell and Conservative Erin O’Toole.

“This is a community I’ve grown up and spent my entire life in and so it just means a lot that the people here have entrusted me with such a huge responsibility that I take really seriously,” said O’Connell.

The members of Parliament will now have a few days to celebrate their wins before heading to the country’s capital to represent the people who elected them.