Ontario voters delivered sweeping change to the province's political landscape Thursday, electing Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford as the province's next premier.
Ford was well in the lead in a majority of ridings just 15 minutes after the polls closed, against the New Democrats led by Andrea Horwath and Kathleen Wynne's Liberals. Disparity in the numbers so far is raising questions about whether the governing Liberals, who have held power in the province for the past 15 years, will retain official party status.
Major television networks projected that Ford would win a majority government less than 30 minutes after the polls closed. Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner was also made a historic breakthrough by picking up a seat for his party — their first in Ontario — in the riding of Guelph.
Ford needed 63 seats needed to win his majority government in a legislature of 124 ridings. Seventeen of those ridings are new this year, concentrated in northern Ontario and the Greater Toronto Area.
“I think Doug’s going to do good for the country,” Chris Eftimovski from Etobicoke said minutes after Ford's was announced. “He’s going to create jobs, and that's what we're need.