Election results will roll in soon now that polls have closed, and if it feels like we've been here before in Simcoe-Grey, it's because we have.
The ballot for today's provincial election looked pretty close to the same as the one for the June 2, 2022 election.
Two years ago, Brian Saunderson ran for the Progressive Conservatives, taking a leave from his job as Collingwood's mayor to do it, and won. He shared the ballot with Ted Crysler for the Liberals, Allan Kuhn for the Green Party, Keith Nunn for the NDP, David Ghobrial for New Blue, and Rodney Sacrey for the Ontario Party, and Billy Gordon for the None of the Above Party.
Saunderson, Crysler and Kuhn were back on the ballot today for their respective parties, as was Ghobrial and the NDP fielded a new candidate, Benten Tinkler, who was MIA for the election campaign and didn't respond to media requests.
The 2022 election was the first in 32 years without Jim Wilson, a PC MPP elected in 1990 and re-elected again and again until he retired in 2020.
Since 1937, Collingwood – under three different ridings: Simcoe-Grey, Simcoe West, and Dufferin Simcoe – has had three MPPs, all PCs, and they were Jim Wilson, George McCague, and Wally Downer.
In the last Ontario election (June 2, 2022), Saunderson was elected with 27,060 votes, followed by Liberal candidate Ted Crysler with 11,680 votes and NDP candidate Kieth Nunn with 5,838 votes.
Voter turnout wasn't good in 2022, of the 121,996 eligible voters in Simcoe-Grey, only 52,800 people (43.3 per cent) cast a ballot.
Ontario-wide in 2022, the PCs won 83 seats (1.9 million votes), the NDP won 31 seats (1.1 million votes), the Liberals won eight seats (1.1 million votes), and the Green Party won one seat (279,174 votes). There was also an independent MPP elected with 25,000 votes.
Polls closed in Simcoe-Grey at 9 p.m. on Feb. 27, 2025. Election results will be posted live at collingwoodtoday.ca/2022-ontario-votes.