Local Ridings Stay Conservative, Liberal Majority Nation Wide

Last updated at 2:00 a.m., Tuesday, October 20

The three ridings in Midwestern Ontario stay blue among a nationwide swath of red as the Liberals win a majority in the 2015 Federal Election.

After 78 days of campaigning there was talk of a minority but from the outset, Liberal candidates picked up wins in the east and the trend continued through Quebec and Ontario.

But in Ontario, a lot of the Liberal support came in Toronto area while areas of southern Ontario elected Conservatives.

Huron-Bruce:

Ben Lobb was able to maintain his seat in Ottawa.

"I knew it was going to be very close and we prepared for that for two years. I knew it was going to be a very tough election and we made all of the appropriate investments in the campaign. This was by far the best campaign we've ever run," says Lobb. "There are priorities in our community, obviously our rural community's infrastructure. Agriculture is obviously our big economic driver and we need to be mindful of that and have a government that's mindful of it."

Liberal candidate Allan Thompson says the party came a long way from a distant third place finish in the 2011 election.

"This is a very, very significant change in political dynamic in Huron-Bruce and I think that will probably play itself out four years from now," says Thompson.

Former MPP and Liberal campaign co-chair Murray Elston [left] with
Huron-Bruce Liberal candidate Allan Thompson. (Photo by Jordan MacKinnon)Voter turnout for the Huron-Bruce riding was 72.04 % according to Elections Canada. You can find the final results here.

--Bob Montgomery and Jordan MacKinnon

Perth-Wellington:

Conservative candidate John Nater saw a close race with Liberal candidate Stephen McCotter at the start but then pulled away.

"Hard work. We started door knocking well before the actual election was called. Back in May we started knocking on doors in every community in Perth-Wellington," says Nater. "By the end of the campaign we had knocked on over 30,000 doors. So we took our message straight to the door steps, we talked to people right in their homes about the issues that matter to them."

Perth-Wellington Conservative John Nater smiles during election night results. (Photo by Victor Young)

“I'm looking forward to being a constructive and collaborative member of the opposition. We'll certainly be posing as a strong opposition to the new majority government but we'll also work with them on the important issues that matter to the constituents of Perth-Wellington fighting for strong rural infrastructure, fighting for strong rural transportation options and making sure that our families are able to make ends meet so we're fighting for the pocketbook issues for families in Perth-Wellington.”

Liberal Stephen McCotter finished second in the voting but didn't meet with the media afterwards.

You can find the complete Perth-Wellington results here.

--Victor Young

Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound:

Larry Miller is going back to Ottawa.

His lead all evening was never more than 5,000 votes and it was after 11:00 p.m. before he was declared the winner.

He was quick to thank his supporters.

"I want of course to say thank you to them. The response that I had going door to door and meeting in communities, unbelievable the positive feedback," said Miller in an interview at his campaign office. "I gotta tell ya I'm just physically, mentally and emotionally drained. It's gonna take a week or two to get over this."

Larry Miller with a supporter at his campaign office early on during election night. (Photo by Kirk Scott)

He was the last of the three local MP's to be declared after a tight race in the beginning with Liberal candidate Kimberley Love.

"I am just thrilled that we have a Liberal majority government. That is a really strong endorsement of our message of hope and optimism for Canadians," says Love.

"We don't do attack advertising. We believe in collaboration, cooperation. We believe in hope, optimism and Canadians tonight endorsed that."

You can find the Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound results here.

--Kirk Scott