John Vanthof Secures Another Term

Status quo remains in Ontario as Doug Ford wins 3rd majority.

In a closely watched provincial election held on Thursday, incumbent NDP MPP John Vanthof has once again emerged victorious in the Timiskaming-Cochrane riding, cementing his role as the region’s representative at Queen’s Park. First elected in 2011, Vanthof clinched the win with 11,245 votes, securing 44.1% of the vote share—a slight uptick from his 42.9% in the 2022 election.

The race saw Ontario Progressive Conservative (PC) candidate Tory Delaurier, the mayor of Iroquois Falls, take second place with 9,632 votes, or 37.8% of the vote. This result mirrors the PCs’ 2022 performance, when they garnered 35.5%, showing a modest gain but not enough to unseat Vanthof.

Interestingly, the election defied expectations of low participation typical of a winter vote. Timiskaming-Cochrane saw a voter turnout of 51.76%, a significant jump from the 42.6% recorded in 2022.

Reflecting the outcome at the provincial level, the local Liberals did not get the results they wanted, finishing with just 9.69% of the vote.

Meanwhile, the Green Party’s Kris Rivard, the most active candidate in West Nipissing, unfortunately was not able to gain momentum finishing with 5.37% of the vote—a decline from his 6.2% in 2022. While only joining the campaign at the last minute, the New Blue Party’s Stephen MacLeod finished 5th while capturing 3.08% of the votes.

Province-wide, the PCs secured a very similar majority as they did in 2022. With 43% of the popular vote they captured 80 seats (63 required for a majority). With only 18.5% of the vote, the NDP will remain the official opposition with 27 seats (down from 31 in 2022). While the Liberals were able to get 30% of the popular vote, they only secured 14 seats.

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