Kathleen Wynne told supporters that “we’ve got work to do” as she celebrated her new Liberal majority government in Ontario late Thursday night.
“Thank you to the people of Ontario for the choice that you’ve made tonight,” Wynne told a roomful of jubilant supporters at a downtown Toronto hotel to chants of “four more years.”
“You voted for jobs, you voted for growth. Thank you for voting to build Ontario up. And let me tell you: your government is ready to do exactly that.”
Wynne is Ontario’s first elected woman and openly gay premier.
“This is a beautiful, inclusive place that we live in, Ontario,” Wynne said.
As of 11:45 p.m. ET, the Liberals were elected or leading in 59 ridings, the Progressive Conservatives in 27 and the NDP in 21. At dissolution, the Liberals held 48 seats, the PCs held 37 seats, while the NDP held 21 seats. One seat was vacant.
Voter turnout was about 52.1 per cent.
Wynne said she will visit Lieut.-Gov. David Onley on Friday and ask that he recall the legislature as soon as possible, within 20 days. She will table a budget shortly after, she said.
Federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau tweeted his congratulations.
“Congratulations to @Kathleen_Wynne on being the first woman elected as Premier of Ontario.”
Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a statement congratulating Wynne.
“On behalf of the Government of Canada, I would like to congratulate Premier Kathleen Wynne and her team on their election victory,” Harper said.
“I look forward to working with Premier Wynne on issues of importance to Ontarians and all Canadians, including promoting jobs, growth and long-term prosperity.”
Not long after victory was declared for the Liberals, PC Leader Tim Hudak announced that he would resign his post and would not lead the party into the next election.
“This has been along campaign and without question it has been a hard-fought campaign,” Hudak told grim-faced supporters in his home riding of Grimsby, Ont.
“We did not receive the result that we wanted. But I cannot be more proud of the work of our team and the positive message of hope and jobs and change that we offered.”
The result should not be mistaken “as an endorsement of the status quo,” he added, saying his party will continue to focus on job creation and transparency at Queen’s Park.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, who triggered this election by declaring last month that she would not support the Liberals’ latest budget, did not mention her own political future in a brief speech late Thursday.
“New Democrat MPPs are going to work day in and day out to hold the government accountable and deliver change that makes sense,” Horwath said.
Wynne began her day as she does most others -- with a run -- before casting her ballot in her mid-town Toronto riding. She spent much of the campaign contrasting her party’s big-spending promises to boost economic growth with the job- and cost-cutting plan of the PCs.
The central plank of Hudak’s campaign platform was his Million Jobs Plan. He pledged to reduce the size of government and cut corporate taxes with the goal of creating one million jobs in less than a decade. The Liberals and the NDP have focused on highlighting another part of that plan: to cut 100,000 public sector jobs.
In the final days of the campaign, Hudak said he was choosing to focus on the positive messaging of his job-creation plan, and said he had to be honest with voters about the tough choices necessary to tackle the province’s $12-billion deficit.
Each party faced some controversy over the course of the campaign, from NDP heavyweights calling out Horwath for bungling its early days, while economists accused Hudak’s team of using bad math on which to base his job-creation plan.
Wynne had to try to distance herself from the scandals that have gripped the Liberals in the last few years, particularly the $1 billion gas plant scandal that dates back to when Ontario voters last headed to the polls.
The scandals ultimately brought down the government, with Horwath last month saying that she would not support the latest budget because she could no longer trust the Liberals.
Meanwhile, the Liberals used the last few days of the campaign to attempt to push voters away from the Hudak camp.
