Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford is thanking the people of Ontario for giving his party a majority government.

Ford says under his government, Ontario will enter a previously unseen period of economic prosperity.

“A new day has dawned in Ontario, a day of opportunity, a day of prosperity and a day of growth,” he told a cheering crowd in Toronto.

PC incumbent Vic Fedeli has won re-election in Nipissing.

“My number one priority is for the people of Nipissing. They’re the ones who elected me to go to work for them at Queen’s Park and that’s what I intend to do and I’ll work in any capacity Premier Doug Ford ask me to work in,” he says. “We’ve been looking across the aisle for almost seven years and just know we can do so much better for Ontario, starting with bringing back passenger rail and developing the Ring of Fire”

With 81 of 81 polls reporting, Fedeli won Nipissing with 17,598 votes followed by the NDP’s Henri Giroux with 12,994.

The Liberals Stephen Glass has 2,794 votes followed by Kris Rivard and the Green Party at 997.

Trevor Holliday and the Northern Ontario Party have 738 votes and Libertarian candidate Bond Keevil has 122.

Voter turnout in Nipissing was 59.7 per cent.

Across Ontario, the PC’s were elected in 76 ridings. 

Fedeli says Ontarians were clear in what they wanted. “They wanted to see a PC majority, they knew how important it was to have a strong voice at Doug Ford’s table. They know i would be a strong voice in the North. Nipissing delivered and it’s my turn to deliver for Nipissing,” he says.

Meantime, the NDP becomes the official opposition with 40 seats.

The Liberals lost official party status, having won only seven seats while the Green Party won one.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath won her Hamilton riding and says from the very start of the campaign, it was clear people wanted change.

“I could not be more proud that we offered a positive vision, change for the better,” she told a cheering crowd.

Liberal Kathleen Wynne won in Don Valley West, but announced she’s stepping down as leader.

“I am resigning as the leader of the Ontario Liberal Party,” she told supporters.

Green Party of Ontario Leader Mike Schreiner has won his bid to become the first Green to hold a seat at Queen’s Park winning in Guelph.

Many Liberal cabinet ministers have been defeated, including Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault, who lost to the NDP’s Jamie West in Sudbury.

Incumbent PC Vic Fedeli cast his ballot this morning at the Callander Community Centre and predicted a PC Majority.

6,386 people voted in the Advanced Polls in Nipissing.

That was up from the 2014 election.

Meantime, the results of the student vote across Ontario are in and they chose an NDP majority.

More than 280,000 elementary and high school students took part in the Student Vote program.

In Nipissing, 930 students voted with PC Vic Fedeli winning the Student Vote here.

Elections Ontario says voters encountered a handful of technical glitches and unspecified delays at some polls elsewhere in the province with voting hours extended at seven of the province’s approximately 7,200 polls.

(With files from The Canadian Press)

Filed under: onelxn2018