After a tight race, the people of Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte have spoken, and have re-elected Progressive Conservative candidate Doug Downey as their MPP.
Downey, who previously served under the Doug Ford PC government as the Attorney General of Ontario, defeated long-time Barrie Mayor Jeff Lehman to secure the seat once again for the PCs in the Ontario provincial election.
By 12 a.m., with all 67 polls in the riding reporting, Downey had collected 16,114 votes (42.5 per cent).
Meanwhile, 15,505 votes had been cast for Lehman (40.8 per cent).
Lehman served as Barrie’s mayor from 2010, but announced earlier this year that he would not be running for a fourth term. Lehman said he would be taking an official leave of absence to focus on the campaign.
NDP candidate Beverly Patchell garnered a total of 2,974 votes (7.8 per cent) on Thursday, while Green Party candidate Elyse Robinson collected 1,652 (4.4 per cent) votes.
The PCs won their second consecutive majority government Thursday, with candidates elected in 83 ridings.
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