It's a wrap!

The 2011 Ontario Provincial election will go down in history as having the lowest voter turnout ever. All across Ontario voters were just not engaged in the voting process, and what was considered to be one of the most important elections in recent history given that we might be heading into another recession.

For 3 of the 4 major political parties, the results were depressing. For the Liberals they went from 72 seats, down to 70 seats before the election to end up with 53 seats, 1 short of a majority. They lost 4 cabinet ministers, and did not gain any new seats. I do have to give credit, where credit is due and say that they ran a good campaign given the fact that everyone felt at the start of the summer they were going to be reduced to 3rd party status. The reason they are still in power is a result of the Liberals taking a page out of PM Harper's playbook from the May Federal Election, which was to talk about the ecomony, and it would be ill advised to change governments as we might be heading into another recession.

Over to the PC's....Tim Hudak just never connected with the average voter, he came across as a bit cocky when he was talking to voters, and the Liberals did a good job of placing the Harris label on him as the campaign began. The chain gang, and GPS plan for criminals did not fly with voters, and the fact that they did not put any effort into Toronto and Ottawa to try and break the Liberal strongholds. Harper was able to get Conservatives elected in what were once strong Liberal ridings because they focused on certain ridings and put the required resources into those ridings. Yes, the PC's did pick up seats at the expense of the Liberals outside of the 416,  but this election was the one for them to win, like their Federal counterparts did in May.

The NDP's new leader, Andrea Horwath did a great job and while they only gained 7 seats they are now a force at Queens Park. The success had to do with several factors, like the Orange Wave that was experienced in the May Federal election, and the death of Jack Layton in the summer. I had a chance to attend a few all candidate meetings not just in my riding of Simcoe Grey, but in a couple of other ridings, and I found the NDP candidates to be very weak in their presentations. Like what Harris did to Ontario, the voters also won't forget what Bob Rae did to Ontario as the NDP Premier from 1990-1995. Another factor was the fact that they stayed on message and did not engage in negative ads like the Liberals and PC's did.

Finally the Green Party under their new leader Mike Schreiner. In 2007 they went from over 8% of the vote, down to 2.9% during this election. When the economy is the number one issue, the Greens, and their policies just don't register with voters. According to the Green Party their membership increased by 130% and they hit a record in fundraising. Mike Schreiner decided to run in Simcoe Grey which is considered the safest Conservative riding in the Country, both Federal and Provincial. Mike knew he was not going to beat PC, Jim Wilson, but they had a plan to focus on rural Ontario to make gains which seemed to backfire. For the Greens to be successful they need to bring in some big political guns over the next few months, and reshape the party. I'm not saying that Mike needs to be replaced, he's a great public speaker and seems to connect with people, but for the party to make any gains in what will most likely be another election in 18 months, they need to play politics like the big boys.

So it should be an interest time down at Queens Park, and let's hope everyone can play nice together, but I don't really think they will.

Until next time, which will be in about 18 months.