Christine Elliott secures PC victory in Newmarket—Aurora

Jun 7, 2018 | News

Christine Elliot supporters embracing after her victory. (Taz Dhaliwal)

Mickal Aranha, Harmanjeet Singh Gurm, Taz Dhaliwal and Bobby Mihalik

Progressive Conservative Christine Elliott has won the Newmarket—Aurora riding in the Ontario provincial election.

With 58 of 60 polls reporting, Elliott had 23,604 votes and 47.14 per cent of the vote.

In second place is the NDP’s Melissa Williams, with 12,001 votes and 23.97 per cent of the vote.

The Liberal’s Chris Ballard was a close third, with 11,560 and 23.09 per cent of the vote.

Newmarket—Aurora, which is north of the City of Toronto, has a population of 84,224. Manufacturing is the major industry with Magna International as the largest manufacturer.

In an interview with CityNews, Elliott said she plans to follow the PC campaign platform as it has been laid out. She said she does not support a carbon tax and is in favour of making sure Ontario is a more business-friendly environment for small business owners.

Elliott said she wants to continue to improve Ontario’s healthcare system to get the best value of out of residents’ tax dollars. She also said she will work on reducing hydro rates and developing a coherent energy policy for the province.

Elliott lost the PC leadership race to Doug Ford this past March. She initially refused to concede to him as she cited “serious irregularities” and vowed to investigate, but later accepted the result.

Williams was running for the NDP on five platform points. First is providing drug and dental coverage for all Ontarians, addressing hospital overcrowding and seniors care, cutting hydro bills by 30 percent by bringing Hydro One back in public hands, taking on student debt by converting loans to grants and creating thousands of jobs. She also campaigned on protecting the middle class by asking the wealthy and large corporations to pay their fair share.

Liberal incumbent Chris Ballard’s agenda included free prescription medication for those under 25 and over 64; free or significantly reduced tuition for post-secondary education; new long term care beds, increased base funding for the hospital and increased GO train service to get commuters to work and home again in a timely fashion.

Green Party candidate Michelle Bourdeau ran on a well-rounded platform focusing on investing in “green jobs”, innovation and technology and supporting local business. The platform included investing in healthcare with a focus preventative care, mental health and reducing wait times to access care. Also developing a clean and affordable electricity system, reducing greenhouse gases and pollution while helping communities adapt to climate change. Fiscal responsibility and a balanced budget was also a priority.

Also running were Independent candidate Dorian Baxter, Ontario Moderate Party candidate Denis Gorlynskiy, Libertarian Party candidate Lori Robbins, Denis Van Decker of the None of the Above Direct Democracy Party, and Bob Yaciuk of the Trillium Party TPO.

The riding last voted in the 2014 General Election. Chris Ballard won the election with 43.94 per cent of the vote. Jane Twinney from the PC Party came in second by a plurality of 3,412 people. The NDP candidate Angus Duff had 11.51 per cent of the votes.

In the 2011 General Election, the PC candidate secured a victory with 47.24 per cent. Christina Bisansz, the Liberal candidate, came in second with 35.62 per cent with a plurality 5,271. The NDP candidate Robin Wardlaw came in third place with 14.36 per cent of the votes.

Elliott lost three bids for Ontario PC leader. The first one was in 2009 to Tim Hudak. The second was to  Patrick Brown in 2015 and the third time to Ford this year.

She’s had a notable career in politics, having been elected as an MPP in 2006 in the riding of Whitby-Ajax. She replaced her, late husband, Jim Flaherty, when he was elected to federal Parliament after holding the riding for seven years from 1999-2006.

In 2007, the riding of Whitby-Ajax dissolved into Whitby-Oshawa and Ajax-Pickering. Elliott was the MPP of Whitby-Oshawa from 2007 until 2015. She was born in Oshawa and grew up in Whitby as well.

Elliott won four elections as a MPP and worked at Queen’s Park for nine years. She worked as the deputy leader of the PCs under Hudak, from 2009- 2015.

Elliott was appointed as Ontario’s first Patient Ombudsmen in 2016.