One political war defined by 107 political battles

Despite Canada’s conservative government, the province of Ontario remains Liberal with Dalton McGuinty ready to serve his third consecutive term as Premier.

The Ontario Liberal Party finished with a stunning 53 seats over the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, who managed to prevent a majority government with 37 seats.

The NDP were still present with 17 seats, but they didn’t accomplish nearly as much as they had hoped.

Ontarians have made it clear that in a province that is proudly bilingual, a monolingual candidate such as Tim Hudak is not likely to take the race. In this election, language was a strongly valued factor that forced a Conservative Ontario to slip away.

The Liberals held a somewhat distant lead throughout the evening, but never managed to maintain the desired 54 seats. The PC party had a very strong campaign for advanced voting, which gave them a promising lead that slowly faded away.

As election night progressed, most people had a general idea how the seats would be divided. However, some of those who zoned in on specific ridings were experiencing neck-and-neck battles between the two dominating candidates.

Amidst the most watched ridings, Liberal Bob Chiarelli managed to hold his grip on the Ottawa West-Nepean riding over PC candidate Randall Denley, who was projected to have a good chance at unseating Chiarelli.

“I’m feeling elated. It was a difficult campaign and it was also a difficult campaign provincially and it’s an historic victory for Dalton McGuinty and the Liberals,” said Chiarelli, who held his breath until finally being re-eleted as Liberal MPP. It was a photo finish.

Denley, who is formerly an Ottawa Citizen reporter, received a warm welcome at his campaign party at Grace O’Malley’s regardless of his shortcoming in the Ottawa West-Nepean poll.

The Glengarry-Prescott-Russell riding, which is among the most widespread geographically, was one of the most suspenseful. Liberal candidate Grant Crack and PC candidate Marilissa Gosselin were in a dead heat up until all 242 polls were counted.

In a riding that was red since 1977, GPR residents were relieved to see Crack finish this political race on top. The Liberals had a significant lead as the polls starting coming in around 9:10 p.m. but the PC party didn’t waste any time before making it a see-saw battle until the final results were official.

Gosselin, who lost a heavy amount of votes after false reports that she didn’t speak French, almost took over the GPR riding. She was given a rare opportunity when former Liberal MPP Jean-Marc Lalonde recently stepped down after holding this position for the past 25 years. This made for an equal advantage between both candidates.

The New Democrat Party candidate Bonnie Jean-Louis was a distant third.

“We were hoping for more of a thriller, but now we are seeing a lot of colour across the province,” said Jean-Louis about the results in her riding. “I am curious, surprised, and I will keep actively following the polls.”