The PC Party of Ontario came close to a perfect sweep of the crucial GTA-905 area in Thursday’s election.
The party, led by Doug Ford, won 83 seats across Ontario, increasing its majority. That’s seven more than in the previous election and well above the minimum 63 required for a majority.
Ontario Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca and his Ontario NDP counterpart Andrea Horwath both resigned as the results rolled in.
Del Duca lost the riding of Vaughan-Woodbridge to PC Party incumbent Michael Tibollo. Tibollo first beat Del Duca in the riding back in the 2018 election.
The PCs won 29 of 30 seats across the 905, which includes Peel, York and Durham regions.
The lone seat that refused to turn blue was Oshawa, where Ontario NDP incumbent Jennifer French won with a lead of just 1.9 percentage points.
In Mississauga, the PCs retained all six of their seats, while the party gained three seats in Brampton. Those gains came at the expense of one independent and two Ontario NDP incumbents, including deputy leader Sara Singh.
“To the people of Ontario: thank you, thank you so much. Thank you for your trust and thank you for once again putting your confidence in me,” Ford said on election night.
Other wins included several key former PC cabinet ministers. Stephen Lecce, who served as Minister of Education, won his race in King-Vaughan, while Sylvia Jones, Ford’s Solicitor General, won in Dufferin-Caledon.
Just four of the 29 PC wins in the GTA-905 were achieved with a margin of less than five per cent.
Kaleed Rasheed (Mississauga East-Cooksville), Parm Gill (Milton), Sheref Sabawy (Mississauga-Erin Mills) and Patrice Barnes (Ajax) all won close races.