Peggy Revell
Voters in the Kenora-Rainy River elected NDP candidate Sarah Campbell to Queen’s Park.
The unofficial results from yesterday’s provincial election saw Campbell garner 10,752 votes—representing 49.2 percent of the popular vote for this riding.
“I was thinking that this morning when I woke up that it would hit me, but it still hasn’t quite hit me yet,” admitted Campbell.
She noted that even as the numbers rolled in last night, and people around her started to get excited, she continued to remain cautious and wait until even more of the polls reported before celebrating.
“I was very excited, and surprised because honestly we didn’t really have an indication of how things were going,” Campbell remarked.
“Things were feeling good when we were talking to people, but that’s always a smaller sample and there’s a lot of volatility and things can really change in the last couple of days,” she reasoned.
Progressive Conservative candidate Rod McKay came second with 8,314 votes (38.1 percent).
Liberal candidate Anthony Leek was a distant third, capturing 2,173 votes (9.9 percent).
Green Party candidate Jo Jo Holiday was fourth with 385 votes (1.8 percent), followed by Charmaine Romaniuk with the new Northern Ontario Heritage Party at 219 votes (one percent).
Campbell and McKay were neck and neck when the local results first began streaming into the returning office here in Fort Frances, up or down by 100 or so votes.
But Campbell eventually broke away and built up a 2,000-plus lead.
The Liberals won the election overall but failed to secure a third-straight majority government—falling one seat short with 53 of the 107-seat legislature.
The PCs were next with 37 while the NDP captured 17.
“If that’s what we’re looking at, I think there’s a big opportunity to come to some common ground and move forward on issues,” said Campbell.
“Regardless of whether it’s a minority and the NDP is looking at the balance of power, or whether we’re the opposition, I’m going to work real hard for the people of Kenora-Rainy River,” she pledged.
Unofficially, a total of 21,843 votes were cast in this riding.
At this point, the unofficial results don’t include two polls located in two remote northern communities.
These two were among 39 remote northern locations that lost communications capabilities due to Telesat’s Anik F2 satellite suddenly ceasing to operate yesterday.
As such, they were unable to send in their results.
These votes will be included when local election workers complete the official count, although there aren’t enough to alter the election’s outcome.
