A photo of an Elections Ontario sign from the Elections Ontario Facebook page.
Photo from Elections Ontario Facebook page.

rabble will be updating this page throughout the evening tonight, June 2, which is election night in Ontario.

8:45 p.m.

We can already report that at least 19 ridings will have polling places that will remain open past 9 p.m. Eastern, which is the closing time for all other polls in the province. Anyone who is waiting in line to vote will be allowed to as long as they got into line before 9 p.m. Polls in the Flamborough-Glanbrook riding in the Hamilton area will close at 10:45 p.m.

Parties are already reporting that voter turnout for this election is historically low. CBC is reporting that party insiders expect that turnout could be below 50 per cent. The lowest voter turnout in the history of the province was the election in 2011 which saw a turnout of 48.2 per cent.

8:55 p.m.

This election is the first to see two new right wing parties participate, the Ontario Party and New Blue Party. The Ontario Party was formed in 2018, and the New Blue in 2020.

The Ontario Party is lead by former federal Conservative MP Derek Sloan and the New Blues are lead by Jim Karahalios, who has previously been sued by the ruling Ontario Progressive Conservative Party (PC)s.

9:00 p.m.

Most polls in Ontario are now closed. Anyone still in line at a poll will still have the chance to vote if they remain in line.

There are 124 seats in the Ontario Legislature; 67 are currently held by the governing Progressive Conservative Party, 39 by the New Democrats, seven by the Liberals, six are Independent, one seat is for the Greens, one for New Blue, one for the Ontario Party, and three are vacant.

CBC is now reporting that as many as 27 ridings will have polls that remain open past 9 p.m.

9:10 p.m.

So far, returns are showing that the PC’s have won or are leading in three ridings, the NDP is leading or have won three ridings, and the Greens are leading or have won one seat.

Global News and CBC are projecting Doug Ford and the PC party will win another majority government.

9:25 p.m.

Lawyer Naomi Sayers was running as an Independent in the riding of Sault Ste. Marie. rabble covered the harassment that Sayers had received during the course of her campaign.

Incumbent PC candidate Ross Romano is leading in that riding with 47.4 per cent of the vote. Sayers is in fourth place behind the Liberals and NDP with 4.1 per cent of the vote.

Ontario Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca was hoping to win back his riding of Vaughn-Woodbridge. Del Duca had represented Vaughn as Transportation Minister in the Liberal government of Kathleen Wynne, but lost his seat in the 2018 election to PC candidate Michael Tibollo, Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions.

Del Duca is facing Tibollo again, and as of time of riding Tibollo is leading Del Duca with 57.5 per cent of the vote to Del Duca’s 31.4 per cent of the vote.

9:30 p.m.

Ontario PC leader Doug Ford and Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath are both projected to win in their ridings of Etobicoke North and Hamilton Centre respectively. Additionally, Green Party leader Mike Schreiner is projected to win again in his riding of Guelph.

One Independent candidate is currently leading in a close race in the Haldimand-Norfolk riding. Independent Bobbi Ann Brady is leading incumbent PC candidate Ken Hewitt by 800 votes.

Brady is a former PC riding chair for Haldimand-Norfolk. According to the Hamilton Spectator is for cutting red tape, expanding long-term care, and boosting ODSP.

9:45 p.m.

The PCs are confirmed to have won 63 seats, enough to form a majority government. The Ontario NDP are confirmed to have won 15 seats, the Liberals 5 and the Greens one.

Ontario Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca has lost his race to win a seat in the legislature. The Ontario Liberals are also currently projected to fall short of the 13 seats needed to win official party status.

The Ontario Liberals are also expected to lose the riding of Glengarry-Prescott-Russell. The PCs had won the riding in 2018, until MPP Amanda Simard crossed the floor to the Liberals after Doug Ford’s decision to cancel a planned French language university in Toronto.

Simard is currently trailing the PC candidate in the riding, Stéphane Sarrazin, with 36.9 per cent of the vote to Sarrazin’s 42.4 per cent.

9:55 p.m.

The Green Party is seeing a growth in their share of the vote. In the 2018 provincial election the Ontario Green Party received 4.84 per cent of the total vote. So far in the 2022 election, they have received 6.2 per cent of the vote.

In his election night speech leader Mike Schreiner thanked his party and its candidates.

“Four years ago we made history in Guelph . . . and we’ve made history again re-electing Ontario’s first Green MPP,” he said. “We have proved that the Greens are here to stay. We are building momentum across this riding and across this province.”

The Green Party was also running a close race in the Perry Sound-Muskoka riding. At time of writing, Green candidate Matt Richter was five percentage points behind PC incumbent Graydon Smith with 40.5 per cent of the vote to Smith’s 45.5 per cent.

“Too see a riding so close that has always gone blue shows that there is momentum,” said Schreiner. “I want to give a shoutout to Matt Richter and his team for the amazing fight he brought.”

Schreiner said that his party would continue to fight the sprawl, a reference to PC leader Doug Ford’s promise to build a new 400 series highway, Hwy 413, in the Greater Toronto Area.

“I will fight to be a strong opposition voice in the legislature,” he said.

Schreiner said that he would focus on the housing, affordability, health care, and climate portfolios in Queen’s Park.

He also went on to congratulate Doug Ford and the PCs.

“The people have spoken . . . but at this critical moment in time I ask you to consider the fiscal, economic, and climate implications to paving over the places that we love, the farmland that feeds us and the nature that protects us,” he said. “The storms and extreme weather that we’ve experienced in the last months of this campaign alone show what is at stake for our future and our children’s future.”

10:10 p.m.

The PCs look likely to grow their lead from the 2018 election. Currently they are projected to win 80 seats, compared to the 76 seats from 2018. The NDP are currently projected to win 29, Liberals 8, Green one, and one seat is currently projected to be won by an Independent.

10:15 p.m.

Ontario PC leader Doug Ford addressed a crowd of his supporters at his party headquarters at around 10:10 p.m.

“Together we have done the impossible. We have made history,” he said to shouts of “four more years” from the crowd.

Ford focused on jobs and infrastructure in his victory speech.

“If you are a miner in the north who is out of work, I want you to know we are building that road to the Ring of Fire . . . we are investing in Ontario’s auto sector, if you are a student and want to work in the tech sector, we will have a job for you,” he said.

Ford also thanked his fellow party leaders.

“While we may have different ideas, I do truly think we all want to think we want to see Ontario succeed,” Ford said.

Ford promised to address the housing crisis and build more infrastructure including highways, subways, and hospitals.

He also promised to reduce the size of government and cut the gas tax.

He closed his speech by saying that he wanted to represent everyone in Ontario.

“Now more than ever, we need unity,” Ford said. “We are absolutely unstoppable when we work together, so I am calling for unity. Whether you are an NDP supporter working on the assembly line, or if you have cast your last ballot for the Ontario Liberals there is a place for you here.”

10:25 p.m.

Worth noting that despite being very close in the popular vote number, the NDP are leading the Liberals by 20 seats. The NDP have 884,878 votes and the Liberals have 888,585 at time of writing.

At 10:25 p.m. NDP leader Andrea Horwath took the stage in her riding of Hamilton Centre in which she won re-election with 56.7 per cent of the vote at the time she took to the stage.

Horwath thanked her fellow leaders and fellow candidates.

“Everyone who puts their name on a ballot is making our democracy stronger,” she said.

Horwath said she would fight for a “new way forward” to address the housing and climate crisis in partnership with First Nations.

“We have to do our part to ensure future generations have a healthy planet and bright future,” she said. “We will never stop fighting to make these goals a reality for the people of Ontario.”

Horwath cited the popular vote as an indictment of Doug Ford. All of the parties combined had received 2.1 million votes compared to 1.6 million the PCs had received as of 10:35 p.m.

“Ontarians did not vote for cuts,” she said. “They did not vote for hallway medicine. They did not vote for more schools to fall into disrepair.”

“They didn’t vote for an even less affordable province,” Horwath added. “The majority of Ontarians did not vote for big highways to big houses that no one can afford.”

Horwath announced that she would be stepping down as leader of the Ontario NDP.

“I am shedding tears of pride. Look at what we have done together. Together we have built a party that is stronger and in a better position to form government than ever before,” she said.

Horwath had been NDP leader for the past four elections.

10:45 p.m.

Liberal leader Steven Del Duca was the last party leader to make an address.

Like the other leaders, he thanked his fellow candidates.

“We are so lucky to live in a country were every vote counts,” he said.

As he spoke those words his party had received 954,092 votes and eight seats, and the NDP had received 950,008 votes and 23 seats.

Del Duca celebrated that for the first time, half of his party’s candidates were women.

“I am so disappointed to not have been successful in my home riding of Vaughn-Woodbridge,” he said. “I am proud of the innovative ideas we as a team brought forward.”

Del Duca also announced that he had decided to step down as leader of the Ontario Liberal Party.

“I am again, so very proud of the work that we did,” he said. “I know we as a political family and a political movement, we will be starting the next campaign in a much better place.”

He added that the Ontario Liberal Party expects to be debt free by the end of 2022.

“Today the voters of our province have spoken and they have delivered a majority government to the Conservatives,” he said. “I want my daughters to grow up in an incredible Ontario.”

“I know that leading this province will weigh heavily on Mr. Ford. I know it would on me,” Del Duca said, adding that his party would re-double its efforts to connect with voters.

Del Duca closed his speech by thanking his family and promising them that they would go to Canada’s Wonderland on the coming Sunday.

11:00 p.m.

At the end of the night, the Ontario PCs had won 78 seats, were leading in five, with 1,732,506 votes.

The NDP had won 25 seats and were leading in four with 995,560.

The Liberals had won eights seats and were leading in none with 1,000,346.

The Green Party won one seat and were leading in none with 256,404.

Finally, Independent candidate Bobbi Ann Brady won her seat in the Haldiman-Norfolk riding.

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Nick Seebruch

Nick Seebruch has been the editor of rabble.ca since April 2022. He believes that fearless independent journalism is key for the survival of a healthy democracy. An OCNA award-winning journalist, for...