In Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston, 2021 Looks Just Like 2019

Jeff Green | Sep 22, 2021

As the votes started being counted in most of the country after 9:30 on Monday night, Lanark-Frontenac Kingston never flashed on the tv screen as part of the national coverage. The only reference was on the large electoral map that popped onto the screen periodically, as large blocks in eastern Ontario started shifting from the grey undecided column to a deep Conservative Blue.

In Lanark Frontenac Kingston, from the first poll result onwards, the incumbent Conservative Scott Reid polled 2 votes for every 1 for the second place candidate, Liberal Michelle Foxton.

By the time 25 of 264 polls in the riding had reported their results, Reid had been declared the victor as he had accumulated a lead of over 1,000 votes.

His vote percentage, which had been just under 48% in 2015, the first election in what was then a new riding, and just over 48% in 2019, was sitting at 49% this time around with 252 of 264 polls reporting

Michelle Foxton, who ran the most extensive and long lasting campaign of any candidate in At the riding, was sitting at 26%, a little over 1% higher than 24.7% that Kayley Kennedy received for the party in 2019.

Steve Garrison, at 16%, was 2% higher than Satinka Schilling in 2019.

The party that lost the most ground in the LFK riding, was the Green Party. Following a national trend, Green candidates Calvin Neufeld was polling at 3%, down from the 11% that Stephen Kotze received in 2019. On the other hand, Florian Bors for the Peoples Party was polling at 6%, up from the 1.8% of the vote that went to the Peoples Party candidate Matthew Barton in 2019.

After the results had been tabulated, Michelle Foston released a statement. It reads, in part:  I first wish to extend my most sincere congratulations to Scott Reid. It was an honour to be on the ballot with such a fine list of candidates ... It was a rewarding campaign! I also wish to sincerely thank the residents of LFK who supported me, including the volunteers who donated their time and those who donated to my campaign ... Listening to residents over the past several months has allowed me a unique opportunity to appreciate all that we have in common."

Nationally, both in terms of seat count and vote percentage, the four largest parties were at almost the same set count as they had been after the 2019 election, and the Liberal Party will be setting up a minority government,

Also, once again, both the NDP and Bloc Quebecois will have more than enough seats to propel the Liberals to a majority on any vote, giving the Liberals an opportunity to pass legislation as long as they can accommodate at least one other party's wishes.

At the start of the campaign, Scott Reid to the News that if the election resulted in a Liberal majority it would be a negative result in terms of respect for the role of Parliament by the government.

He cites the “WE Scandal” as an example of a case where the Prime Minister would use a majority to stop a Parliamentary committee from investigating potential government wrongdoing.

“When I look at this election, and of course I am biased, I think the priority for Canadians is to make sure the Liberals don't get the majority they are looking for. If he has a majority, Justin Trudeau would shut that committee or any other committee at the time."

That may not have been the goal of the Conservative Party, however, who were hoping to form government after taking a lead in the polls in the early part of the campaign.

For the second election in a row, the Liberal Party received a lower percentage of the popular vote than the second place Conservatives. This time they were 2 percentage points behind.

As he takes his seat after winning his 8th election in a row, Scott Reid's role within the Official Opposition remains ill-defined.

Whether he will play a role as a member of the shadow cabinet as he did earlier in his career, remains to be seen. At the dissolution of Parliament, Reid was not sitting on any parliamentary committees.

In the Hastings Lennox and Addington Riding, Conservative Shelley Kramp-Neuman,daughter of former MP, and current MPP, Darryl Kramp, took the riding by a comfortable 6,000 vote margin over former Liberal MP Mike Bossio.

Kramp-Neumann received 46% of the vote, to Bossio's 34%. The Peoples Party candidate James Babcock received 6% of the vote and Green candidate Reg Wilson received 2% of the vote. Jennifer Sloan, running to keep the seat that her husband Derek won in 2019 when he ran as a Conservative, also received 2% of the vote.