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Liberal again in Ontario

Despite losing its majority government, the Liberals are still the governing party of Ontario after Thursday’s vote.

Dalton McGuinty becomes the first premier since PC Bill Davis (1971-85) to win three terms as premier, and the first Liberal to do it since the third premier of the Ontario, Sir Oliver Mowat, in the late 1800s.

The win was historic, but not without its disappointments for the Ontario Grits.

Two cabinet ministers lost their seats (Sophia Aggelonitis and Leona Dombrowsky), which would have most certainly put the party into majority territory – one seat shy of the coveted 54 seat threshold at post time.

A few star candidates lost seats in from both the Liberal and PC parties in Toronto.

Sarah Thomson, the formal Toronto mayoral candidate, lost by a hair to longtime (21+ years!) NDP MPP Rosario Marchese in Trinity-Spadina.

Rocco Rossi, an opponent of Thomsons’ in the mayoral race and a former Liberal executive, was trounced by Mike Colle in Eglinton-Lawrence.

There were far fewer newcomers in this election than the province saw in the last federal election. Jonah Schein picked up the momentum of federal Dipper Andrew Cash in Davenport and won Liberal Tony Ruprecht’s old seat. Laura Albanese took York-South Weston back from Paul Ferreira, who won it for the NDP in 2007, by just 842 votes.

Still, McGuinty pulled off what can be considered a come-from-behind victory against Tim Hudak’s Progressive Conservatives, who were up in the polls by double-digits during the summer.

Hudak became the third leader in a row who could not bring a PC seat to Toronto.

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