For the first time in his career as an MPP, Bob Bailey will be part of the ruling party.
The Progressive Conservatives won a commanding majority with 76 seats. The NDP becomes the official opposition with 39. It appears the Liberals have not won enough seats to maintain party status. The former governing party is down to seven seats (as of midnight).
As Ontarians headed to the polls, some news agencies were pegging Sarnia-Lambton as a close race, but in the end, Bailey won with commanding 7,806 vote margin over Kathy Alexander.
When asked if he would become a cabinet minister Bailey said he would welcome the offer. He’d especially like to work on Infrastructure, or energy or petro-chemicals as that’s his working background.
He’d love to “double down” on reducing red tape.
When he talks to business people or farmers, Bailey says, cumbersome paperwork is the most common complaint he hears.
“We have 400,000 regulations in Ontario,” he said. “B.C. reduced theirs by a third without hurting anything.”
And while Elections Ontario hasn’t given the official word it appears voter turnout was much higher than the 2014 election, for instance
Alexander received more votes in this election than Bailey won with in 2014.