PC candidate Anthony Leardi has won the riding of Essex in the 2022 Ontario Election.
The PCs haven’t won in the area provincially since the 1960s, and since the riding was recreated as Essex in 1999, it has been held by the Liberals or NDP provincially.
With 56/58 polls reporting, Leardi has 23,752 votes while the NDP's Ron LeClair received 13,165, and the Liberals Manpreet Brar got 3,951.
In his victory speech, Leardi thanked all his volunteers for their hard work during the campaign.
"The people who worked so hard to make this moment possible by knocking on doors, by pounding in signs, by making phone calls, so many hours of hard work. Thank you from the bottom of my heart."
(Photo Credit: Taken by Rob Hindi)
Leardi says the key was all about the long hours of door knocking and meeting voters where they were at.
"The first week I posted my statistics I put in 76 kilometres of door knocking, and the second week I put in 83 kilometres and my final week I put in 86 kilometres of door knocking," he continued. "You know what we work hard in the Progressive Conservative party, and I am personally going to continue working hard."
He says Premier-elect Doug Ford when he visited the riding two years ago said he would fight like an 800 pound gorilla to get us a hospital, and he did that.
"So Doug Ford is our representative, he's our Premier, and I think he's done a fine job for the County of Essex. And now with me participating we're going to continue doing that fine job for this county," he said.
Essex was dubbed a riding to watch this election after incumbent Taras Natyshak decided to step away from politics. Natyshak took the riding from the Liberals in 2011 and held the seat for three terms.
Voters in Essex decided to turn the riding blue after 11 years of NDP.
- with files from AM800's Rob Hindi