Steve Pinsonneault has won the Lambton-Kent-Middlesex riding for the PC Party of Ontario.

And he did it convincingly.

The Thamesville businessman and municipal politician garnered 57 per cent of the vote Thursday in one of two by-elections in the province.

Pinsonneault claimed 15,649 votes. Liberal Candidate Cathy Burghart-Jeeson was his closest rival. She garnered 6,208 votes.

Pinsonneault is up for the challenge; “I have a vast knowledge of rural and urban. And that’s what Lambton-Kent,-Middlesex is. I know what the issues are, I know what the concerns are.”

The largest concern, he says, is the cost of living and the federal carbon tax.

Burghart-Jesson says there was one clear concern on the election trail. “We can talk about education, we talk about hospitals, we can talk about affordability, we can talk about infrastructure that’s kind of in every community but the one issue has been the dump, and that is going to have to be addressed,” says Burghart-Jesson.

“Dresden is kind of this flagship, for lack of a better term, for all of these dormant landfills. And if it happens there, then it’s the wild west, where it can happen right across the province.

“It’s a slippery slope and the government has shown that it’s far more interested in that large corporation and its donors than actually the residents of our communities.”

Pinsonneault says he is ready to stand up for the people of Dresden. “I don’t support the project. I’ve said that right from the beginning. And I’m going to continue to advocate that that dump landfill extension doesn’t. You know, I encourage the residents to keep filing with the registry. I haven’t changed my stance on that at all.”