Ontario’s Liberal government was set to retain the riding of St. Paul’s on Thursday, with Eric Hoskins well ahead in a byelection that opponents had tried to frame as a referendum on Premier Dalton McGuinty’s harmonized tax plan.
Flanked by Mr. McGuinty and his wife, Samantha Nutt, Dr. Hoskins hugged supporters as he arrived at a celebratory party at the Sport Centre Café an hour after polls closed.
“It’s phenomenal,” he told a reporter while he passed through a screaming crowd on his way to the stage.
“Thanks for fighting cynicism,” Mr. McGuinty told the crowd. “Its never been about us, it’s been about the folks of St. Paul’s.”
Earlier this week, Progressive Conservative candidate Sue-Ann Levy said she knew that challenging the Liberal front-runner in the midtown riding was going to be tough.
“But I enjoy a challenge,” said Ms. Levy, a city hall newspaper columnist who took a leave of absence to run.
"I’m awinner because … I spread the message about the HST, and I learned so much," she said. "I think the voters just have to wake up to how bad a tax the HST is, and how tired the McGuinty government is."
The byelection was the first test of the Liberals since it passed its controversial tax plan, with opponents clamouring to make the vote a referendum on public support.
Shortly after polls closed, Dr. Hoskins, a family physician and co-founder of War Child Canada, appeared poised to join his party at Queen’s Park.
“It is a very, very good sign that Dr. Hoskins wanted to be a candidate for our party,” said Energy and Infrastructure Minister George Smitherman outside the café party on St. Clair Avenue West. “He’s a great guy.”
Thursday’s byelection — to fill the Queen’s Park seat vacated by Michael Bryant in June — was expected to be a closer race than previous St. Paul’s votes.
A final tally was not available at deadline, but with 200 of 235 polls reporting, Dr. Hoskins, with 9,706 votes, had a strong lead over Ms. Levy’s 5,936.
The midtown riding voted Liberal by a wide margin in the past three general elections. In each case, the Progressive Conservative candidate finished second.
New Democrat Julian Heller had received 3,705 votes as of deadline, running third place for the third consecutive election.
Green candidate Chris Chopik had 1,140 votes as of press time.
An array of six independent and fringe-party candidates picked up the remainder of the votes.
Through much of the campaign, both Ms. Levy and Mr. Heller had positioned the election to be about sending Mr. McGuinty a message that voters were upset with HST, as well as two recent spending scandals at eHealth and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp.
Earlier this week, Mr. Hoskins said he believed the residents of St. Paul’s would choose to send a strong representative to Queen’s Park.
“I suspect that this byelection is about a number of issues, but mostly it is about leaderships, and what I am hearing is they want to continue St. Paul’s’ proud tradition of leadership at Queen’s Park,” he said.
The doctor ran for election federally in his childhood riding of Haldimand-Norfolk last year, losing to Conservative Diane Finley.
The St. Paul’s byelection was announced in August, to replace Mr. Bryant, the former Liberal Cabinet minister who stepped down in June to assume a role promoting Toronto to potential business investors.
Mr. Bryant resigned from his position as CEO of Invest Toronto last month after being involved in the death of a bike courier while driving home from a date with his wife.
Mr. Bryant had represented the St. Paul’s riding since it was recast in 1999 to match the region’s federal riding borders.
He received more than 43% of the votes cast in 2007, outdistancing PC candidate Lillyann Goldstein by 9,370 votes.
In 2003, he nabbed almost 55 % of the votes to retain the seat, beating PC candidate Charis Kelso by a margin of 13,684 votes.
In his speech last night, Dr. Hoskins thanked Mr. Bryant for his support, and said, “I look forward to building on the great work he has done for St. Paul’s.”
To the Premier, he said, “I’m excited about this adventure, and I’m looking forward to joining your caucus to represent the great people of St. Paul’s.”
St. Paul’s has been a federal Liberal riding for 16 years and is currently represented by Carolyn Bennett.
The small but densely-populated riding of 78,575 electors spans a 16-kilometre area between Dufferin Street to the west and Bayview Avenue to the east with, for the most part, Eglinton Avenue and the Canadian Pacific railway line south of Davenport Road, as its north and south borders.
The riding is considered to be one of the most highly educated in the country. According to the 2006 national census, 56% of residents over 25 years of age have a university certificate or degree.
The average family income, $166,814, is the second-highest in the country.
National Post
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