Tuesday November 18, 2014

By Graeme MacKay – Tuesday November 18, 2014

Liberals win in Whitby-Oshawa (second place)

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives survived a tough fight with the Liberals on Monday night to hold on to a seat with symbolic and sentimental significance — the Whitby-Oshawa riding held for a decade by the late finance minister, Jim Flaherty.

Conservatives kept the riding and preserved Flaherty’s legacy, but the margin of victory was nowhere near as wide as what the former finance minister enjoyed after first being elected in 2006.

Justin Trudeau’s Liberals strongly chipped away at the Conservative stronghold, with Celina Caesar-Chavannes in a neck-and-neck race all night with the Tory candidate, former Whitby mayor Pat Perkins.

With nearly all the results in late Monday night, the Conservatives and Liberals were separated by less than eight percentage points.

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The closeness of the race will buoy Liberal hopes for the 2015 election, while potentially sending a chill through the ruling Conservatives’ hopes for retaining power after the next general vote.

The New Democrats trailed far behind in third place, which will also prompt some hard thinking in NDP circles next year. (Source: Toronto Star)

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