May 04 - 17, 2011
www.southasianstar.com
Ph: 905 487 1320
HARPER WINS MAJORITY A strong showing in Ontario helped propel Stephen Harper and his Conservatives toward a historic majority government Monday night. The Tories held their existing 52 seats and picked up another 20. The Conservatives finally broke through the Liberal fortress in Toronto, stealing Liberal Ken Dryden’s seat in York Centre, Martha Hall Finlay’s in Willowdale, Joe Volpe’s seat in Eglinton-Centre, and a number of others in the city’s core, and in its suburbs. The most high-profile loss for the Liberals in Ontario, however, lies with Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff. He couldn’t manage to keep his seat in Etobicoke-Lakeshore, losing it to Conservative Bernard Trottier by more than 2,000 votes. The Liberals were decimated in Ontario, dropping from 37 seats to just 12. The NDP lost only one of its 17 previous seats in the province, in Sault Ste. Marie, but gained other key seats including in Toronto, bringing its count in the province to 22 seats in total. There were 106 seats up for grabs in the province in this election and a number of tight races to be decided. The province’s strategic importance was underscored by how much time Harper, Ignatieff and Layton spent there during the fiveweek campaign. For the Conservatives to get their elusive majority, they needed to improve their fortunes in Ontario. The Liberals, meanwhile, clearly felt the need to maintain their hold on Toronto if they were to prevent that from happening, and to stop the NDP’s late-campaign surge from sweeping the province. Emphasizing Ontario’s importance, Harper began the last weekend of the campaign in Richmond Hill, north of Toronto before head-
ing to Nova Scotia, then west to wrap up the campaign in his home riding in Calgary. Layton was in Quebec for some of the weekend but also held a number of events in Ontario, and Ignatieff spent the weekend campaigning entirely in Ontario, visiting nearly a dozen communities in the southwestern part of the province and suburbs of Toronto. The NDP holds seats in Hamilton, near Toronto, but the battle for the suburbs, the “905 region” that rings Toronto, was mostly between the Liberals and the Conservatives. The Tories have been chipping away at the Liberal fortress in and around Toronto for years. They picked up Toronto-area seats in Thornhill and Vaughan in the 2008 election and a more recent byelection, and the Liberals were eager to get those back. But Julian Fantino was easily re-elected in Vaughan, and Peter Kent, the environment minister, also sailed to victory in Thornhill. As well, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is returning to Parliament Hill to represent Whitby-Oshawa. Within the city of Toronto, the Liberals used to hold all but two seats. Those two other seats belong to Layton in Toronto-Danforth, and his wife, Olivia Chow, the NDP MP for Trinity-Spadina. The NDP was hoping that Peggy Nash could win back her seat from Liberal Gerard Kennedy in Parkdale-High Park, and she did. In northern Ontario, some NDP MPs had to fend off attacks from the Conservatives because they voted to maintain the long-gun registry in the last session of Parliament. It’s a wedge issue that the Tories tried to use to their advantage in some rural ridings.
FEDERAL ELECTION RESULTS Party Elected Vote Share % CON NDP LIB BQ GRN IND
167 102 34 4 1 0
39.62 30.62 18.91 6.05 3.91 0.43
Pg 16
on Market Evaluati s te u in 15 Min Over the Phone
Broker
416.305.6062
Homelife/Superstars
Real Estate Ltd. Brokerage
Each office Independently Owned and Operated
Off: 416.740.4000 w
w
w
.
d
e
e
p
a
k
p
u
n
j
.
c
o
m
Not intended to solicit sellers and buyers under contract.
Get your Home SOLD