'It's an honour': Liberal Francesco Sorbara keeps Vaughan-Woodbridge Liberal for 3rd time

Yorkregion.com
Sept. 22, 2021

Incumbent MP Francesco Sorbara secured Vaughan-Woodbridge as a Liberal riding for the third time.

The unofficial results show Sorbara won 45.9 per cent of votes, based on 202 of the 203 polls reporting.

Conservative Angela Panacci, who ran in the riding for the first time, came second after garnering 18,273 votes, which is 40.4 per cent.

Peter Michael DeVita, the NDP candidate, received 6.9 per cent of the votes.  The People's Party of Canada candidate, Mario Greco, won 5.5 per cent, placing ahead of Green Party candidate Muhammad Hassan Khan, who received 1 per cent.

In a video posted on Twitter, Sorbara thanked the residents after his win.

"Thank you to all the residents of Vaughan-Woodbridge for placing your faith and trust in me to continue serving as your member of Parliament," Sorbara said. "It is an honour and privilege."

After his win, Sorbara told the Vaughan Citizen that the theme of this election as all about “moving forwarded and giving Canadians an opportunity to voice their opinions at the ballot box.”

He said the elections would “determine what direction do we want to go after we've invested $350 billion because of the pandemic into supporting businesses, supporting workers.”

“Now we really need to hear your voice of where you want the country to go from.”

'WE NEED TO WORK WITH OTHER PARTIES’

For Sorbara, another minority government means there needs to be across-the-spectrum collaboration

“We need to work with other opposition parties for sure,” he said.

“At the same time, it's a mandate to implement our platform, it's a mandate to govern the country in a very responsible manner, in a very prudent manner and in a manner that brings Canadians together.”

Readying to go back to Ottawa with his team, Sorbara is aiming to implement the agenda on which he ran. The main pillars of his platform are a $10 a day national childcare and early learning program, continuing investments in infrastructure and battling climate change while “ensuring that we have a strong economy and a healthy environment.”

The takeaways for him following the election is seeing how COVID-19 has impacted Canadians.

“One thing I've learned for sure is that all Canadians and all residents of my riding just want to get back to normal,” he added. “This normality means getting vaccinated, receiving the vaccine. So we can all do the things we we enjoy doing on a normal basis like we did pre-pandemic.”

Affordability is yet another big concern that needs to be addressed.

“We need to continue putting in those policies that will grow our economy and create good jobs -- that’s something I definitely heard at the door,” he said.

In 2015 Sorbara won 48.7 per cent of the 47,298 valid ballots and in 2019, Sorbara garnered 51.3 per cent of the 50,328 votes, followed by Conservative candidate Teresa Cruze, at 36.3 per cent.

As polls were coming to close, Elections Canada urged people to stay in lines and promised they would still get the chance to vote as long as they arrived prior to the 9:30 p.m. mark.

A long queue was seen at the TRIO Sportsplex & Event Centre in Woodbridge after the scheduled closing of the polls.

'SUBSTANTIVE VOID'

Sorbara might lose a Liberal colleague Deb Schulte in a neighbouring riding King-Vaughan.

With 144 of 145 polls reporting, unofficial results show Conservative Anna Roberts winning there, receiving 45.43 per cent of the votes. Schulte had 42.5 per cent of the votes.

If results become official and Schulte leaves, Sorbara said, "I think there will be a substantive void.” After all, Schulte was known for her environmentalism.