FEDERAL ELECTION: Liberals win cities, Conservatives win farm country

OTTAWA — The Liberal Party held on to power as a minority government in the Oct. 21 federal election with a big thank you to Ontario city voters.
The Liberals won all seven urban and suburban Ottawa seats, and 47 of 50 Toronto-area seats. Those 54 ridings make up 34 per cent of the Liberal’s 157 federal seats. They needed to win 170 of 338 seats to earn a majority.

Farmers Forum identified 25 rural ridings as farm country in Eastern Ontario, Western Ontario and Southern Ontario. We excluded all ridings with a population density of 100 people or more per square kilometre.
In total, the Conservatives won 22 of those 25 rural ridings with the Liberals picking up the other three. The Conservatives picked up two new rural seats over 2015, taking back Hastings-Lennox and Addington and Northumberland-Peterborough South.

Despite winning 88 per cent of seats in Ontario farm country and the overall popular vote across Canada, the Conservatives fell well short of gaining power in the Oct. 21 federal election. They won 121 seats.
But the Conservatives won 34.4 per cent of the popular vote compared to 33.1 per cent for the Liberals. Two-thirds of voters did not chose the Liberals.

The closest riding in all of Canada in 2015 wasn’t as close this time around as Barrie city Coun. and Conservative candidate Doug Shipley kept the riding blue by winning 39.2 per cent of the vote. Liberal candidate Brian Kalliecharan was the runner-up with 31.2 per cent.

Nationally, People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier, who wanted to dismantle supply management, was pounded in his own riding in Beauce, Que. beaten by former dairy farmer and Conservative candidate Richard Lehoux.

As well, Canada’s ag minister Marie-Claude Bibeau, who has no farming background, was re-elected in her riding of Compton-Stanstead, in Quebec’s eastern townships.