The Real Winners Are the Liberals – Everybody Else Lost

The 2025 Ontario election is over, and while some are calling the results surprising, the truth is far less dramatic. Not much has changed. The status quo remains firmly in place, with Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives holding onto their majority government. For everyone else—voters, local candidates, and the democratic process itself—this election feels like a loss.

The election, which cost taxpayers an estimated $189 million, was called by Premier Ford under the guise of seeking a “strong mandate” to tackle the looming threat of Trump’s tariffs. Critics, however, saw it as an unnecessary move, coming just two years into the PC government’s mandate. I feel the province would have been better served by Ford focusing on actually governing rather than campaigning.

The Liberals came out as the unexpected winners of the night, quietly rebuilding since their epic collapse in 2018. While both the PCs and NDP lost a few seats, the Liberals managed to snag 14—two more than they needed to regain official party status. And yet, Bonnie Crombie still lost in her own riding.

I just can’t wrap my head around how a party can gain seats while its own leader gets rejected. It doesn’t make sense. I guess the buzz around the federal Liberal leadership race and the hype from people like Mark Carney gave them just enough of a boost to put them over the finish line.

The NDP, meanwhile, struggled to hold onto their position as the official opposition, losing ground to the Liberals in urban centers where they once dominated.

Does the Candidate Matter?

Gone are the the days, it seems, when local candidates with deep roots in the community and a proven track record of service were the focus of elections. Instead, the 2025 election highlighted the continued rise of party politics, where brand loyalty and centralized strategies trump individual merit. This isn’t unique to our riding. Across the province, the Liberals leaned on their federal bump to claw their way back into relevance. But their success came at a cost: the further erosion of local representation.

This is a sad trend that was glaringly obvious in our own riding, where Devon Monkhouse, a parachuted Liberal candidate—handpicked by the party brass just weeks before the election and with no prior ties to the community—managed to pull in more votes than the three local candidates combined. Those candidates, representing the NDP, the New Blue Party, and the Ontario Party, were left in the dust, overshadowed by the Liberal brand and its well-oiled campaign machine.

Nolan Quinn retained his seat locally with a commanding 62% of the vote. I’m not entirely sure he’s the best person to represent us at Queen’s Park, but hey, at least, he’s local.

Why don’t we vote?

It’s no secret that I’ve been involved with the local NDP Riding Association, who had a fantastic candidate in Jeremy Rose. If anybody could loosen the blue grip the Conservatives have in this riding, it’s him. He gave this campaign his heart and soul, and genuinely cared about our people. Eloquent, charismatic and most of all empathetic, he listened about the things that mattered to our area. So why didn’t he do better? At least better than a parachuted Liberal? Voter Turnout.

The voter turnout was only slightly higher than the dismal numbers seen in 2022. Despite the high stakes and the hefty price tag, most eligible Ontarian voters stayed home. In SDSG, out of 85,816 registered voters, only 38,443 exercised their right to vote. Nolan Quinn got some 62% or that. 23,834 checked his name on the ballot, or 27% of eligible voters. Does that really reflect the majority of the population?

I hear you. Whatever your reason for not showing up is—you may have been disillusioned, feeling your voices no longer matter in a system dominated by party machines and parachuted candidates. Or you may have seen the election as unnecessary, given its timing and the lack of a compelling reason to head to the polls—the low turnout speaks to a troubling disconnect between Ontarians and their elected representatives, a disconnect that doesn’t seem to be getting any better.

In the end, the Liberals may have won the night, but the rest of us lost something far more important: faith in the process.