Not surprisingly Progressive Conservative candidate for Wellington-Halton Hills Ted Arnott easily won re-election in the June 12 provincial election.
But despite a resounding personal victory, Arnott was disappointed in PC leader Tim Hudak’s campaign, which resulted in Hudak announcing he will relinquish his position as party leader.
“We did poorly,” Arnott told the Advertiser as campaign results poured into his celebration headquarters at the Erin Legion.
In a surprise result, the PCs lost 10 seats, bringing them to 27 elected MPPs, while Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals gained 11 seats to clinch a Liberal majority with 59 seats in the hotly-contested campaign. The NDP seat count remained the same (21) under leader Andrea Horwath.
Wynne is the first elected female premier in Ontario and the first openly gay provincial premier elected in Canada.
Locally, shortly after his win was announced, Arnott told reporters Hudak’s promise to slash 100,000 civil service jobs was an issue that resulted in his party’s collapse at the polls.
“That was a turning point in the campaign,” Arnott told reporters about concerns raised by voters during his campaign.
According to Arnott, the civil service cuts could have been achieved through restructuring of government departments, a hiring freeze and attrition. However, Hudak never made it clear how the cuts would be done in a bid to cut the Ontario deficit under a PC watch.
“It was mischaracterized by our opposition that if we were elected we would fire 100,000 (civil servants) by the time we got in,” he said. “Ultimately it was a failure on our part to communicate properly.”
Arnott handily won the riding with about 47 per cent of the vote, picking up an unofficial tally of 22,600. It is the seventh time he has been elected as the local MPP.
Liberal challenger Dan Zister was a distant second, picking up 29% of the votes at 14,095, while NDP candidate Michael Carlucci garnered 6,848 votes (14.1%), Green Party candidate Dave Rodgers posted 3,566 (7.4%), Libertarian Jason Cousineau 1,104 (2.3%) and Freedom Party candidate Mitch Sproule 198 (0.4%).
Arnott said his priorities will focus on getting the Morriston bypass on the provincial transportation ministry’s five-year plan, pushing for high-speed internet service for rural areas and establishing a time frame of implementing GO service between Kitchener and Toronto.
“Tomorrow, thanks to all of you, I have the privilege of going back to work on behalf of the people of Wellington-Halton Hills,” he told supporters on election night.
He also thanked his campaign team, specifically campaign manager Bill Baxter, for their work during the 40-day campaign.
“All of you worked hard to help me, through the past 40 days and 40 nights, just like the Old Testament, as we reached out to the voters of Wellington and Halton Hills,” he said.
“We worked hard to show that despite the cynicism and negativity of this campaign, politics is the means by which we discuss and resolve our differences on the future of our communities and our province.”
He also thanked his family and wife Lisa for their continued support.
“We main-streeted, we knocked on doors, we put up signs, we ran the offices, we raised the money, we placed the Newspaper ads, we mailed out brochures, and we attended those unending, scintillating all-candidates meetings and we scrutineered at the polls while the people voted, and while the ballots were counted,” Arnott said.
“We worked hard to show that in politics today, in spite of all the lies, honesty is still the best policy.”
“The strength of our democracy is based on several pillars,” Arnott added. “Our democracy is strengthened, when we accept the results of elections, declare the winner, and move forward on an agenda based on the public interest, not on partisan advantage.”
Efforts to reach Zister and Carlucci were unsuccessful by publication deadline.
