London West MPP Peggy Sattler, London North Centre MPP Terence Kernaghan, and London Fanshawe MPP Teresa Armstrong celebrate their election victory at the London Ukrainian Centre on Adelaide St., June 7, 2018. (Photo by Miranda Chant, Blackburn News) London West MPP Peggy Sattler, London North Centre MPP Terence Kernaghan, and London Fanshawe MPP Teresa Armstrong celebrate their election victory at the London Ukrainian Centre on Adelaide St., June 7, 2018. (Photo by Miranda Chant, Blackburn News)
London

NDP Takes 3 of 4 London Ridings, Yurek Re-elected

It wasn't quite a sweep, but it was close.

Voters in three of the four ridings that include London elected New Democrats on Thursday night. Peggy Sattler cruised to an easy win in London West, where she defeated PC candidate Andrew Lawton by more than 14,000 votes. More than half of London West voters cast their ballots for Sattler, while Lawton won just under 30% of the vote. Liberal candidate Jonathan Hughes was third with just under 10% of the vote.

"I have made quite a difference as a third party MPP so I am looking forward to ramping that up as a member of a very strong opposition," Sattler said after learning of her win. "There are still a number of tools available to us to get some changes made whether we are in government or opposition or the third party. I'll continue to do what I have done for the last five years - move legislation forward, get results for the constituents I represent and improve people's lives in the city of London and the province of Ontario."

In London Fanshawe, Teresa Armstrong was re-elected with over 55% of the vote, defeating PC candidate Eric Weniger.

"There were a lot of disastified people with the way the Liberals have been governing for the last 15 years," Armstrong said. "People were very concerned about this Ford leader of the Conservatives... They said we're turning to the NDP."

Armstrong says with three NDP MPPs being elected in London, the party will continue to fight for the needs of Londoners when it comes to health care, affordability, and hydro rates.

The race in London North Centre, which was expected to be a close race between Terence Kernaghan of the NDP and Susan Truppe of the PCs, turned out to be not very close as Kernaghan captured approximately 50% of the vote, defeating Truppe by more than 8,000 votes.

"We had a dedicated group of volunteers and we had people who were really interested in hearing Andrea Horwath's message," Kernaghan said.

Kernaghan also made history on Thursday night, becoming the first openly gay man to be elected as an MPP in London.

"It shows that London is a progressive city. It shows that Londoners have an open heart and they are intelligent. London is great place to be," he said. Kernaghan said, while there were times he would get comments about his sexual orientation, he never let it effect his campaign.

Kernaghan says his top priorities are fixing health care and making sure that seniors are looked after with dignity and respect.

"Those are things that are important to Londoners and those are things that I'm going to fight for at Queen's Park," he said.

The lone PC victory in a London riding was also not very close, as Jeff Yurek was elected to a third term in Elgin-Middlesex-London. Yurek captured more than half of the votes cast, with Amanda Stratton of the NDP finishing second.

"This is probably the best election yet because, not only did we win the riding, but we're going to form the government," Yurek told BlackburnNewsLondon.com after his win was announced. "I'm pretty excited to help make a bigger and better Ontario."

More to come.

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