Oosterhoff reclaims Niagara West, PCs power to provincial majority

By Sarah Williscraft
NewsNow
Residents of Niagara West gathered at the Smithville branch of the Royal Canadian Legion on Tuesday night in support of re-elected MPP Sam Oosterhoff.
The Progressive Conservative candidate won 44.9 per cent of the vote in Niagara West, marking another seat in Doug Ford’s government. After winning 83 of the 124 Ontario electoral districts with over 40 per cent of the provincial vote, Ford holds an overwhelming majority at Queen’s Park.The New Democratic Party formed Ontario’s Official Opposition – winning 31 seats with 23.7 per cent of the votes. The Liberal Party won eight seats with 23.6 per cent of the votes
Addressing the Smithville crowd, Oosterhoff said his priorities for the next four years are the same goals he ran on in 2016. Priorities include providing support for local families, seniors and employers.
“Whether it’s building the West Lincoln Memorial Hospital, or investments in water mains in Pelham, getting new bridges in St. Ann’s or a new community center in Wainfleet,” said Oosterhoff.
“Working with local leaders and each and every one of you to focus on our area’s concerns has been a fantastic honour.”
Oosterhoff won a total of 18,779 votes. Runner up, Dave Augustyn of the New Democratic Party, followed with 8,658 votes. Liberal candidate Doug Joyner finished with 8,013 votes and Green Party candidate Laura Garner secured 2,702 votes.
Chris Arnew of the New Blue Party of Ontario finished with 341 votes, Stefanos Karatopis of the Ontario Libertarian Party with 71 votes and Jim Torma of the Populist Party of Ontario with 26 votes.
The Canadian Press called the election on June 2 at 9:24 p.m. as the Progressive Conservative Party won or was leading in nine of

124 electoral districts.

“I don’t like making too many promises because if you make promises you might not always be able to keep them,” said Oosterhoff.

“What I do promise always is I’m going to work hard, serve with integrity and listen to each and every one of you about what your concerns are and strive to bring those forward.”

Niagara West saw the third highest voter turnout in the province at 53.05 per cent. Four other electoral districts surpassed the 50 per cent mark with Huron-Bruce seeing the highest turnout at 54.38 per cent, Parry Sound at 53.28 per cent, Northumberland-Peterborough at 51.38 per cent and Peterborough at 51.27 per cent.

The average voter turnout across the province sat at 43.5 per cent and is the lowest recorded turnout in Ontario’s history. Of over 10.7 million registered voters in the province, that equals about 4.6 million votes cast.

That is about 13.5 percentage points lower than the previous provincial election in 2018.

The last time voter turnout dropped below 50 per cent was in 2011, when only 48 per cent of Ontario residents over the age of 18 voted.