It's all over, for now at least!

Here are the final results from the 2011 Provincial Election in our riding of Simcoe-Grey:

269 Polls Out Of 269

Candidate	Political Party	Number of Votes
Donna Kenwell	Ontario Liberal Party	10386
David Matthews	Ontario NDP/NPD	6738
Mike Schreiner	Green Party of Ontario	4084
Jim Wilson	PC Party of Ontario	25396

Here are the results from the 2007 Provincial Election:

Jim Wilson             PC Party of Ontario                24139
Steven Fishman      Ontario Liberal Party              12428
Peter Ellis              Green Party of Ontario             5416
Katy Austin            Ontario NDP                           4397
Philip Bender          Libertarian                              718
Steven Taylor         Family Coalition                       358
Owen Ferguson                                                    275

So what do these numbers tell us? First the voter turnout for the 2011 was the lowest in Ontario history. When you compare what Jim Wilson received in 2007 compared to 2011 he had a little over 1000 vote increase. His percentage in 2007 was 50.6% and in this election it was about 54%. The Liberals had both a percentage decrease and a vote decrease. The major factor that I see when you compare the two elections is that in 2007 in our riding you had the Hwy. 26 issue in the north and the birthing unit issue at Stevenson Memorial in the south. We can't forget the faith based funding issue which Wilson was first all for it, then as John Tory changed his mind, so did Jim Wilson.

For this election there was no major issues in the riding that neither the Liberals or Conservatives could rally around. The "Orange Wave" from the Federal election in May, along with the death of Federal NDP leader, Jack Layton I feel had an effect on the over 2000 vote increase for the NDP. This vote increase came at the expense of the Liberals who's numbers decreased by nearly the same amount.

As for the Greens they tanked across the Province with a showing of 2.9% way down for the over 8% in 2007. Mike Schreiner, the Leader of the Green Party and the candidate in our riding ran a great campaign, but he failed to connect with the voters on the issues of jobs, education and health care. Most parts of their environment, and green energy platform were taken by the Liberals, and made into their own image.
For the Greens to make a comeback they need to hire some big guns in the political business and reshape their message. The bottom line for the Greens is that people don't care about the environment, when they are worried about how they plan on feeding their families and paying the bills.

As James Carville, who got President Bill Clinton elected in the 1990's said "It's the Economy Stupid", and it was the number one issue in this election. So moving forward we have a minority government, much like we did in Ottawa for the past 5 years. It's going to be very interesting to see how the Liberals manage a minority government. I feel this was the best way to keep the government in check. I also predict that we will have another election within the next year, but I've been wrong before.

Until next time!