LFK mirrors provincial results, with some nuance

Jeff Green | Jun 03, 2022

The Provincial Progressive Conservative (PC) Party swept to re-election with over 40% of the vote, about the same level as they received when they were elected in 2018, and substantially stronger majority with over 80 seats.

The NDP remained the official opposition with 29 seats, and the Liberals remain mired in third place with only 9 seats, even though the two parties received about the same number of votes overall at around 23.5% each.

With those numbers, Lanark Frontenac Kingston, which has always supported the PC party even when they were spurned by the province as a whole, it is no surprise that John Jordan, their new candidate, has seen his vote total climb to over 50% (It stood at 50.31% with 83% of polls reporting late last night)

Hours earlier, within a half an hour of the end of voting, Jordan was declared the winner by major media outlets, along with the PC candidates from all of the rural ridings in Eastern Ontario.

Jordan’s percentage is less than former PC MPP Randy Hillier’s 52% in 2018. Part of the reason for that may have been the impact of two new parties to the right of the PC’s. None of the three candidates who were running to the right of the PC’s caught fire with the electorate, particularly Hilliers daughter Chelsea who received only 0.7% of the vote for the low-profile Populist Party. But cumulatively they received over 6% of the vote, not enough to challenge for the seat any means, but enough to cut into John Jordan’s total.

As for the traditional opposition parties, the NDP consolidated its status as the number 2 party with 20% of the vote share for first time candidate Drew Cumpson, to 15% for second time Liberal candidate Amanda Pulker-Mok. Green Party candidate Marlene Spruyt received 7% of the vote share, an increase of about 1% from the share received by Green Party candidate Anita Payne in 2018

Independent candidate Craig Timothy Massey Rogers is at 0.5% of the total vote in the riding.