Northern Ontario All eleven ridings in
Northern Ontario were retained by their incumbent parties. The popular vote, however, shifted dramatically, with several Liberal incumbents holding on only very narrowly against NDP challengers. Most notably,
Bill Mauro retained
Thunder Bay—Atikokan by a margin of just 36 votes against
John Rafferty, whom Mauro had defeated in 2003 by a margin of over 11,000 — Rafferty, in fact, spent much of the night leading Mauro. A judicial recount on October 31 increased Mauro's margin of victory to 50 votes.
David Ramsay, similarly, trailed New Democrat
John Vanthof in
Timiskaming—Cochrane for much of the night, pulling ahead to a winning margin of 634 votes only in the final few polls to report. This was the narrowest margin of victory in Ramsay's 22-year career.
Michael Gravelle also retained
Thunder Bay—Superior North by an uncharacteristically narrow margin over Jim Foulds. As well,
Monique Smith retained
Nipissing by just 377 votes over Progressive Conservative candidate Bill Vrebosch — in 2003, she had defeated Progressive Conservative incumbent
Al McDonald by a wider margin of over 3,000 votes. In keeping with this trend, New Democrat incumbents
Howard Hampton and
Gilles Bisson widened their margins of victory over Liberal challengers compared to 2003, and
France Gélinas maintained the same margin that her predecessor,
Shelley Martel, had attained in the previous election. Notably, the rise in popular support for the New Democrats in Northern Ontario carried over into the
2008 federal election, in which the NDP won nearly every seat in the region for the first time in its history.
Eastern Ontario In
Eastern Ontario, the new riding of
Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington was carried by PC candidate
Randy Hillier, while all 13 existing ridings were carried by their incumbent parties. With the exception of
Yasir Naqvi, who carried
Ottawa Centre by a much smaller margin over the NDP than
Richard Patten had attained in 2003, Liberals in Ottawa improved their winning margins, although outside of Ottawa the popular vote trend remained relatively stable.
Central Ontario The most conservative-friendly area of the province, the PC vote largely held up, with the only Liberal gain being
Aileen Carroll winning
Barrie, the seat she used to represent federally. This was countered by a PC nominal gain in
Newmarket—Aurora. The area also delivered the strongest support in the province for the Green Party, with
Shane Jolley finishing a very strong second in
Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound with 33.1% of the vote, the best finish ever received by any Green candidate in Canada to that point. The Greens also knocked the NDP into fourth place in a majority of area ridings.
Midwestern Ontario A politically mixed region, Midwestern Ontario had every incumbent party re-elected, as well as some anomalous results; in an election where the PCs were largely held to rural areas, and the Liberals consolidated an urban/suburban base,
Elizabeth Witmer held onto the riding of
Kitchener—Waterloo for the PCs, while the Liberals won in rural ridings in which they were the incumbent party, such as
Huron—Bruce and
Perth—Wellington. Further away from the provincewide result, on an election night which demonstrated Liberal strength province wide,
Haldimand—Norfolk—Brant delivered the most crushing defeat for a Liberal candidate in the province, with the victorious PC incumbent
Toby Barrett coming out 16,571 votes and 38.6% ahead of the Liberal.
Brampton, Mississauga & Oakville Although the suburban Western GTA had traditionally been a good area for the PCs, winning many seats in the area as recently as the Harris days, where it formed part of the 905-area backbone of the PC government, the Liberals won every seat in the area handily, with the victorious Liberal candidates averaging at around 50%. Even
Mississauga South, which prior to the 2003 election had not voted Liberal provincially since the riding's creation, and had been expected to be a very tight race, proved a surprisingly easy victory for
Charles Sousa, who gained the seat back for the Liberals from
Tim Peterson, who had
crossed the floor. The NDP continued to be a non-factor in the area, while the Greens growth in popular vote across the province was reflected, with the Greens even beating the NDP into fourth place in Oakville, which ironically had been the only riding in the province the Greens had not run in the previous election.
Southern Durham and York The Liberals continued to dominate
York Region, with each incumbent being re-elected by a comfortable margin except in
Thornhill where
Mario Racco lost to PC candidate
Peter Shurman. The newly created riding of
Ajax—Pickering, projected to be a close race, elected Liberal
Joe Dickson by over 6,000 votes despite having no party nominate incumbents. In southern
Durham Region, Liberal
Wayne Arthurs was re-elected to the newly distributed
Pickering—Scarborough East, while Progressive Conservative
Christine Elliott was re-elected to
Whitby—Oshawa. Despite high expectations for
Sid Ryan's fourth run as an NDP candidate in
Oshawa, PC incumbent
Jerry Ouellette was again re-elected by a wider majority than in
2003.
Hamilton, Burlington & Niagara An area with several close seats, and a fairly even distribution of seats, every party had a realistic chance of increasing its seat count here.
Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, which was a merger of a Liberal held riding and an NDP held riding, and had neither incumbent running, was the most interesting match of the night, with the NDP winning a close race. It proved to be the only change of the election, and every other riding returned the incumbent party, although many in close races, such as
Hamilton Mountain (Liberals over NDP),
Halton, (PCs over Liberals) and
Burlington (PCs over Liberals).
Southwestern Ontario In an area with a strong rural-urban divide, both the NDP and PCs had strong hopes of making gains against the Liberals. The NDP had strong hopes of upsetting high-profile Liberals in both
Windsor West, and
Windsor—Tecumseh, given the NDP's ownership of those seats federally, and the continued decline of the local industrial economy.
London—Fanshawe was similarly also a top target, as the NDP had the riding federally and finished a close second in 2003. Overall, however, the only area seat that changed hands was
Sarnia—Lambton, with Culture Minister
Caroline Di Cocco, the most high-profile Liberal casualty of the night, losing to PC challenger
Bob Bailey.
Toronto All ridings in Toronto were retained by their incumbent parties, with the exception of
York South—Weston. New Democrat
Paul Ferreira, who had won the seat from the Liberals in a by-election in February 2007, was narrowly defeated by a swing back to Liberal candidate
Laura Albanese. Almost twice as many people voted in the riding in the general election compared to the by-election. In Toronto's other notable race, Liberal incumbent
Kathleen Wynne defeated PC leader
John Tory in
Don Valley West. Tory previously represented
Dufferin—Caledon, but had chosen to run in a Toronto riding in the general election. Toronto's only incumbent from 2003 not to run again was Liberal MPP
Mary Anne Chambers. The Liberals successfully retained the seat under new candidate
Margarett Best. ==See also==