Doug Ford’s PCs have won Ontario’s election. Horwath and Del Duca are stepping down. What now? The new Queen’s Park explained

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Latest updates

• Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives have comfortably won a second majority in an Ontario election where, by the latest estimates, turnout hit record lows. Mr. Ford used his Thursday-night victory speech to call for unity: “Whether you work on the assembly line and voted NDP your entire life, or cast your last ballot for the federal Liberals, I want you to know that as long as I’m here, there’s room for you in this party.”
• The NDP and Liberal leaders, Andrea Horwath and Steven Del Duca, each quit on Thursday after disappointing results in a race where each said they were the only ones who could defeat Mr. Ford. The NDP remains the Official Opposition, but with fewer seats; the Liberals are below the threshold of 12 needed for official party status.
• One of the Tories’ next orders of business will be to pass the budget they tabled in late April, which promised major highway projects and new health spending but less ambitious measures on housing and climate change than what the NDP, Liberals and Greens offered. Check our platform guide to compare the parties’ plans.

Ontario’s new electoral map

There were 124 legislature seats up for grabs this spring, and any party hoping for a majority needed to win at least 63. At dissolution, Progressive Conservatives had 67, the New Democrats 38, the Liberals seven and the Greens one, with Independents and vacancies making up the rest. As of Friday morning, Doug Ford’s PCs were elected or leading in 83 seats, with 31 for the NDP, eight for the Liberals, one Green and one Independent. To see who won and lost in your riding, consult our live results page.

ONTARIO GENERAL ELECTION, 2018 VS. 2022

RESULTS

2018

Party

Seats

PC

76

NDP

40

Liberal

7

1

Green

Ind.

0

Number of votes

candidate won by

LIB

PC

NDP

GRN

IND

Up to 5K

5K to 10K

Over 10K

RESULTS

2022

Party

Seats

PC

83

NDP

31

Liberal

8

1

Green

Ind.

1

Number of votes

candidate won by

LIB

PC

NDP

GRN

IND

Up to 5K

5K to 10K

Over 10K

VOTER

TURNOUT

2018

Below 35%

35 - 40

40 - 45

45 - 50

Over 50%

VOTER

TURNOUT

2018

Below 35%

35 - 40

40 - 45

45 - 50

Over 50%

Note: 2022 data are as of June 3, 8:22 a.m. (ET).

MURAT YÜKSELIR / THE GLOBE AND MAIL,

SOURCE: ELECTIONS ONTARIO; CANADIAN PRESS

ONTARIO GENERAL ELECTION, 2018 VS. 2022

RESULTS

2018

Party

Seats

PC

76

NDP

40

Liberal

7

1

Green

Ind.

0

Number of votes

candidate won by

LIB

PC

NDP

GRN

IND

Up to 5K

5K to 10K

Over 10K

RESULTS

2022

Party

Seats

PC

83

NDP

31

Liberal

8

1

Green

Ind.

1

Number of votes

candidate won by

LIB

PC

NDP

GRN

IND

Up to 5K

5K to 10K

Over 10K

VOTER

TURNOUT

2018

Below 35%

35 - 40

40 - 45

45 - 50

Over 50%

VOTER

TURNOUT

2018

Below 35%

35 - 40

40 - 45

45 - 50

Over 50%

Note: 2022 data are as of June 3, 8:22 a.m. (ET).

MURAT YÜKSELIR / THE GLOBE AND MAIL,

SOURCE: ELECTIONS ONTARIO; CANADIAN PRESS

ONTARIO GENERAL ELECTION, 2018 VS. 2022

RESULTS

2018

2022

Seats

Party

Seats

PC

76

83

NDP

40

31

Liberal

7

8

1

1

Green

Ind.

0

1

Number of votes

candidate won by

LIB

PC

NDP

GRN

IND

Up to 5K

5K to 10K

Over 10K

VOTER

TURNOUT

2018

2022

Per cent

Below 35%

35 - 40

40 - 45

45 - 50

Over 50%

Note: 2022 data are as of June 3, 8:22 a.m. (ET).

MURAT YÜKSELIR / THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: ELECTIONS ONTARIO; CANADIAN PRESS

Winners, losers and low turnout

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PCs gain ground, NDP loses it

The Tories managed to take strategically important regions that voted NDP in 2018, including three ridings in Brampton (Brampton East, Centre and North) and two in the Windsor area (Essex and Windsor-Tecumseh, with the New Democrats holding on in Windsor West).

Liberals in stasis

Liberal candidates lost two of the eight seats they had at the start of the campaign, Thunder Bay-Superior North (to the New Democrats) and Glengarry-Prescott-Russell (to the PCs). They made up the difference by winning two former NDP seats, Beaches-East York and Kingston and the Islands. Leader Steven Del Duca lost his race in a Toronto-area riding, Vaughan-Woodbridge, to the Tories’ Michael Tibollo.

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Familiar faces in Toronto

Two city councillors made the jump from municipal to provincial government on Thursday, Michael Ford (the Premier’s nephew, who won as a Progressive Conservative in York South-Weston) and Kristyn Wong-Tam (replacing Suze Morrison as the NDP MPP in Toronto Centre). The city’s former police chief, Mark Saunders, didn’t succeed in his bid for the Tories in Don Valley West.

On her own

Bobbi Ann Brady, a former staffer of Tory MPP Toby Barrett, didn’t make the party’s nomination for his riding of Haldimand-Norfolk, where he declined to run again. But on Thursday she won the riding anyway as an Independent, with Mr. Barrett’s support against PC candidate Ken Hewitt.

Voter turnout and trouble at the polls

Only 43.5 per cent of those eligible to vote did so, the lowest turnout ever, according to Friday morning’s figures from Elections Ontario. The old record was 48 per cent in 2011. Not since 1923 has there been this big a drop in turnout between one Ontario election and the previous one. Those who did cast ballots on Thursday didn’t always have an easy time of it: Polling stations in 19 ridings got to stay open later than the official 9 p.m. closing time – by anywhere from 10 minutes to two hours – because of “unavoidable delays,” Elections Ontario said.

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What did Doug Ford promise that the PCs must now deliver?

The Progressive Conservatives didn’t release a platform this year, but the promises in their April budget (which hasn’t passed yet) give an idea of what they might do next. For comparison with the NDP, Liberal and Green plans, consult The Globe and Mail’s election platform guide.

THE BRADFORD BYPASS

Town of Bradford

W. Gwillimbury

HOLBORN RD.

QUEENSVILLE SIDE RD.

400

BATHURST ST.

404

Interchange under

consideration

Township

of King

0

2

Preferred route

KM

HIGHWAY 413

Highway 413 project route

study area

JANE ST.

Preferred route

Vaughan

Bolton

Caledon

400

HWY. 50

AIRPORT RD.

407

Brampton

DIXIE RD.

410

QUEN ST.

STEELES AVE.

Toronto

427

Georgetown

QEW

401

403

0

4

Lake

Ontario

KM

THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: TILEZEN; OPENSTREETMAP CONTRIBUTORS;

highway413.ca

THE BRADFORD BYPASS

Town of Bradford

W. Gwillimbury

HOLBORN RD.

QUEENSVILLE SIDE RD.

400

BATHURST ST.

404

Interchange under

consideration

Township

of King

0

2

Preferred route

KM

HIGHWAY 413

Highway 413 project route

study area

JANE ST.

Preferred route

Vaughan

Bolton

Caledon

400

HWY. 50

AIRPORT RD.

407

Brampton

DIXIE RD.

410

QUEN ST.

STEELES AVE.

Toronto

427

Georgetown

QEW

401

403

0

4

Lake

Ontario

KM

THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: TILEZEN; OPENSTREETMAP CONTRIBUTORS;

highway413.ca

THE BRADFORD BYPASS

Town of Bradford

W. Gwillimbury

400

404

Interchange under

consideration

Township

of King

0

2

Preferred route

KM

HIGHWAY 413

Highway 413 project route

study area

Preferred route

Vaughan

Bolton

Caledon

400

407

Brampton

410

Toronto

427

Georgetown

QEW

401

403

0

4

Lake

Ontario

KM

THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: TILEZEN; OPENSTREETMAP CONTRIBUTORS; highway413.ca

Cars and the environment

The word “highways” comes up 151 times in the budget, not including its cover illustration of a fast-moving 16-lane highway. Mr. Ford has spent the campaign promoting several megaprojects and deflecting criticism that they would make Ontarians even more dependent on fossil fuels.

• Highway 413: The PCs say this new route northwest of Toronto would cut greenhouse-gas emissions by reducing idling and saving commuters up to 30 minutes of travel, but they have released no study to support that. Another report said the savings would be only 30 seconds. Critics also warn that the highway will increase pollution and endanger wildlife.
• Bradford Bypass: This 16-kilometre, east-west route would connect highways 400 in Simcoe County and 404 in York Region. The project team has said time savings would be 10 to 35 minutes, or 14 minutes on average.
• Highway 417: Mr. Ford says he’d widen a stretch of the main route through Ottawa.

Part of the PCs’ environment package – which set a slower timetable for emissions reduction than other parties, only 30 per cent by 2030 – is a course-correction on electric vehicles. In 2018, Mr. Ford cancelled an EV rebate program and stopped building new charging stations, but now he says he’ll stimulate manufacturing of EVs and batteries and spend $91-million to add chargers at parks, carpool lots and rest stops.

Housing

In the months leading up to this election, housing prices in Toronto and other cities hit record highs, and while federal interest-rate hikes cooled the market a little, it is still very hot. The PCs promised to increase supply by 1.5 million homes, but didn’t embrace the dramatic changes to zoning rules that a provincial task force recommended in February. Instead, much of the growth in new homes will be in suburbs, without touching city neighbourhoods that could be made more dense through “missing middle” housing such as low-rise apartments and townhouses.

Health care

Much of Doug Ford’s past four years were spent grappling with a COVID-19 pandemic that killed more than 13,000 Ontarians, exposing fatal flaws in the hospital and long-term care systems. The PCs’ budget lays out $1-billion in home-care investments over three years, while also aiming to build 30,000 long-term beds by 2028. A previous commitment of $30-billion for health infrastructure would increase to $40-billion, with incentives for nurses such as full tuition reimbursements for up to 1,500 graduates per year and $5,000 retention bonuses to stop existing nurses from leaving.

Who will serve as Ontario’s Official Opposition?

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What the Ontario NDP will do now

The NDP will remain as Official Opposition, but in a weakened state and without its leader, Andrea Horwath, who stepped down on Thursday night. This was the 59-year-old Hamilton MPP’s fourth shot at the premiership, but the first time the NDP seat count diminished under her watch. In a tearful election-night speech, she told supporters it was time for her to move on from the role she’s held since 2009:

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What the Ontario Liberals will do now

Steven Del Duca is quitting as leader after an election where he hoped to reverse the damage of 2018, when the Wynne Liberals fell from government to distant third-party status. As of Friday, Liberals are leading or elected in only eight ridings, too few to be recognized as an official party (which allows for access to more funding and parliamentary privileges at Queen’s Park). In his concession speech, Mr. Del Duca said he has asked the party president to start the leadership race “as soon as is reasonable,” and thanked supporters for their efforts:

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What the Ontario Greens will do now

The Greens are in the same position they were before, with leader Mike Schreiner holding his seat in Guelph. The party had hoped to win a second riding, Parry Sound-Muskoka, which they lost to the PCs – but only narrowly, which Mr. Schreiner said was cause for optimism:

Reaction from federal, provincial and local leaders

From Parliament Hill

From Mr. Ford’s fellow premiers

From Ontario mayors

More reading

Marcus Gee: Doug Ford squeaked into party leadership before last Ontario election. This time, he’s earned his win

John Ibbitson: Doug Ford has been rewarded for his learning curve, but which lessons will he heed?

Robyn Urback: Ontario Liberals get an abysmal result after a directionless election campaign

Editorial: The Doug Ford of 2018 could never have won an election in 2022. But he changed

Compiled by Globe staff

With reports from Dustin Cook, Jeff Gray, Marieke Walsh, Irene Galea, Jill Mahoney, Temur Durrani, Oliver Moore, Molly Hayes and The Canadian Press

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