Ontario Conservative Party candidate Hamid wins key Milton byelection
Published May 2, 2024 at 11:08 pm
In what was expected to be a two-party race, Progressive Conservative candidate Zee Hamid won the Milton byelection in one of two key Ontario election battles held Thursday night (May 2).
The three-term Milton councillor jumped out to an early lead on Liberal Party candidate Galen Naidoo Harris when polls started rolling in early in the evening and then cruised to the win.
According to Election Ontario’s unofficial results and with 100 per cent of the polls reporting, Hamid, who unsuccessfully sought the liberal nomination in 2015 and donated to the party as recently as 2022, finished first with 12,880 votes and collected 47.04 percent of all votes.
That’s 2,407 votes ahead Naidoo Harris, who finished with 10,473 votes (38.25 percent).
NDP candidate Edie Strachan finished a distant third with 1,851 votes (6.76 percent), John Spina was fourth with 1,102 votes (4.02 per cent), and Kyle Hutton was fifth with 755 votes (2.76 per cent).
The Ontario riding has been vacant since February when then PC MPP Parm Gill left the post to jump on with the federal Conservative Party of Canada.
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The Milton byelection was being viewed as a potential litmus test for Premier Doug Ford and his government with the possibility it could indicate what is ahead for the next provincial election in 2026.
The byelection was also considered the first real test for new Ontario liberal leader Bonnie Crombie.
The key issue heading into the byelection appeared to be the fight over the Campbellville Quarry, with the re-opening of the Reid Road reservoir drawing the ire of local advocacy groups who were demanding it remain closed.
In the Lambton-Kent-Middlesex byelection, PC candidate Steve Pinsonneault cruised to a 9,444-vote win over Liberal Cathy Burghardt-Jesson. Pinsonneault had 15,649 votes (56.85 percent) to Burghardt-Jesson’s 6,208 (22.55 per cent).
The remaining candidates in Milton byelection included Frederick Weening of the Ontario Party with 111 votes (0.41 percent), Tony Walton of the Family Rights party with 101 votes (0.37 percent), independent John Turmel with 64 votes (0.23 percent) and independent Arabella Vida with 42 votes (0.15 percent).
The unofficial votes showed that 6,511 voters cast a vote in the tonight’s Milton election, making 6.6 percent of the registered voters.
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