Voter turnout increases in York Region, province

YorkRegion.com
June 13, 2014
By Sean Pearce

For a campaign that was oft-described as unwanted, unnecessary and uninteresting by many, it sure defied much of the naysaying in the end.

By the time the dust settled Thursday night, the Ontario Liberals had upped their seat count to 59 from 48, enough to secure a majority government, while the Progressive Conservatives lost 10 seats to arrive at a total of 27.

The NDP, which triggered the election, maintained the 21 seats they had at the dissolution of the legislature May 2, although longtime party stalwarts such as Beaches-East York MPP Michael Prue and Trinity-Spadina MPP Rosario Marchese lost their seats to Liberal challengers.

“I’m a little surprised to see how well the Liberals did,” York University political science professor Robert Drummond said, adding many pundits predicted much tighter races across the province.

Here in York Region, there was also a fair bit of election drama.

In Newmarket-Aurora, Liberal candidate Chris Ballard bested PC candidate Jane Twinney for the seat left open by high-profile PC MPP Frank Klees’ decision not to run.

In Thornhill, the re-match between PC MPP Gila Martow, who was elected in a February byelection, and the Vaughan Ward 4 councillor-turned-Liberal-candidate Sandra Yeung Racco played out differently than it did four months ago with Yeung Racco emerging the victor by 85 votes, although Martow’s supporters hope for a recount.

Elsewhere, Liberal MPPs Michael Chan, Reza Moridi, Helena Jaczek and Steven Del Duca were decisively re-elected in the ridings of Markham-Unionville, Richmond Hill, Oak Ridges-Markham and Vaughan, respectively.

York-Simcoe PC Julia Munro retained her seat in a close race with the runner-up, Liberal candidate Loralea Carruthers.

With the PC seat count reduced and the party effectively routed, leader Tim Hudak announced his resignation late Thursday. NDP leader Andrea Horwath announced she intends to remain in her role.

The results could certainly be taken as a rejection of Hudak’s policies and his apparent hard turn to the right, Drummond said. As for Horwath, there will likely be some calls for her resignation, especially since the party no longer occupies its position as the balance of power in the legislature, but Drummond expects she may not suffer too much because the NDP seat count at least held.

The unofficial provincewide voter turnout was 52.1 per cent, matching the rate of participation in the 2007 election and bettering the 2011 all-time low of just 48.2 per cent.

Locally, Newmarket-Aurora recorded the highest turnout, at 54.3 per cent, beating the 2011 turnout of 49.3 per cent, with Thornhill placing second at 48.1 per cent, which puts it above the 45.4 per cent participation rate recorded in 2011 and well ahead of the 27 per cent turnout witnessed in the byelection held earlier this year.

Voter turnout was 47.7 per cent in York-Simcoe, up from 42.9 per cent in 2011; 47.2 per cent in Oak Ridges-Markham, from 42.7 per cent nearly three years ago; 46.9 per cent in Richmond Hill, compared to 42.5 and 44.9 per cent in Vaughan, which represents a respectable increase over the 41.1 per cent rate of participation recorded last time and the 26 per cent or so seen in the 2012 byelection.

Markham-Unionville saw York’s lowest turnout with just 44.8 per cent of electors casting a ballot, although that’s still up from the 40.7 per cent who bothered to do so back in 2011.

The rise in turnouts was somewhat unexpected given the signs leading up to election day, Drummond noted.

“I guess some people who didn’t vote the last time felt that they had better do so this time,” he said.