Results at a glance
| Party |
Seats in 2014 |
Seats in 2019 |
Vote Share |
| Progressive Conservatives |
27 |
76 |
40.5 |
| NDP |
18 |
40 |
33.6 |
| Liberals |
55 |
07 |
19.6 |
Ontario has voted for a change. The outgoing Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals suffered an unprecedented defeat from years of controversy over a ballooning provincial debt, high electricity prices and costly, politically expedient decisions and paved way for businessman turned politician Doug Ford to be the next Premier of a majority Progressive Conservative Government
Five days before the election, Kathleen Wynne conceded defeat admitting that the governing Liberals were trailing behind Conservatives and NDP. Though she won her seat but immediately resigned her party post to throw open the leadership race for Ontario Liberals.
The results have given Doug Ford, who was elected leader of Ontario Conservatives only in March, an overwhelming majority in an enlarged House of 124 with 76 seats (earlier there were 103 seats) while the New Democrats became the official Opposition with 40 seats improving upon its previous house strength of 18.
Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals dropped from 55 seats in last House to just seven seats this losing the status of an official party. The loss is not only political but also the right to political funding and asking questions on the floor of the House.
After British Columbia, it is the second province that has seen an exit of Liberals from power.
Though in Canada, federal politics are independent of provincial politics, but the loss of power in two major provinces is a big warning for Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government. Elections to the federal government are due next year.
Though the Indo-Canadian Community in general and Punjabi-Canadian community, in particular, has every reason to feel pleased with the results as nine of its nominees would now be members of the new Provincial assembly. Seven of them would sit on treasury benches while two, including Gurrattan Singh, younger brother of New Democrats national chief, Jagmeet Singh, would sit in this has been elected from Opposition. Other NDP MPP would be Sara Singh, a bright young woman who has been elected from Brampton Centre.
The elections have also thrown up new Punjabi leadership which is generally moderate thus restricting the fundamentalists and those supporting separatists. The new political leadership may be symbolic of changes that may continue till federal elections are held next year. The gains of Conservatives and New Democrats may serve as a warning to governing Liberals to sit up and take note of the changing political loyalties of the ethnic minorities, including the Indo-Canadian community.
Harinder Malhi, who was a Minister in the outgoing Kathleen Wynne’s government and who introduced private Bill on Sikh genocide, has been defeated. She lost in Brampton North and finished third behind Kevin Yerde of Conservatives and Ripudaman Dhillon of New Democrats.
Parm Gill, who was Member of Parliament in the previous House of Commons has now been elected to Ontario Assembly from Milton on the Conservative ticket. He has repeated what Jinny Sims did in British Columbia. Jinny was also in House of Commons as NDP MP in the same House where Parm Gill sat as Conservative MP.
New faces thrown by the current election include young Deepak Anand from Mississauga Malton and also Nina Tangri, who after a long struggle has finally made it to the provincial assembly from Mississauga Streetsville.
Prabhmeet Singh Sarkaria, Amarjot Sandhu, and Goldie Ghamari are the other new faces who will be watched in the new Ontario Assembly.
Other than them is Vijay Thaniga salam from Scarborough Rouge Park who will also sit in Ontario Assembly as a member of Indo-Canadian community.
