Andrea Horvat wiped away her tears Thursday night when she announced she was stepping down as leader of the New Democratic Party of Ontario 13 years later.
Horvat made the announcement during his speech on the concession at the Hamilton Convention Center after another defeat in the provincial elections. Her party will return as the official opposition to Queen’s Park.
“My commitment to you will never waver and I will continue to work to gain your trust every day. I will continue to do so. But tonight is the time to hand over the torch, to hand over the baton to hand over the leadership of the NDP, “said an emotional Croat.
“And you know what, it makes me sad, but it makes me happy because our team is so strong right now.”
Horvat said that although her party did not win as an official opposition, the NDP would be ready to fight Doug Ford’s cuts.
“I’m not shedding tears of sadness. I shed tears of pride. Look at you. Look at all of you. Look at what we did together,” she said.
“I can assure you, Ontario people, that as your official opposition, we will work hard every day to fix what is most important to the people of our Ontario province. Do you know why? Do you know why we will do this job? Because your priorities were our priorities before the election. And they were our priorities during the election. And they will be our priorities after the election, because that is us as the New Democrats, “Horvat added.
At 11:30 pm on Thursday, the NDP was selected or the leader in 31 rides. If the results are delayed, the party will lose nine seats, which it won four years ago.
Ford’s Progressive Conservative Party is expected to form a government with a second majority.
Thursday’s election results came as no surprise, as some polls predicted a similar result.
For Horvat, who is running for the fourth time in Ontario, the results were not what he had hoped for, given his party’s strong performance four years ago.
Entering the election campaign, the NDP was in a strong position with dozens of incumbents and a well-stocked party coffers.
However, the NDP failed to gain momentum during the four-week campaign, in which Horwath received a positive test for COVID-19 at one point, prompting it to briefly move its policy online. Polls have predicted that the party is not fighting for a government, but instead is fighting for second place with the Liberals.
And although it won this battle on Thursday, the NDP will return to Queen’s Park with fewer seats than it had at the time of the dissolution.
In 2018, the New Democrats won 40 of the 124 seats in the provincial parliament, the largest since 1990, when Bob Ray’s NDP formed a majority government.
In Brampton, the NDP could not keep its three seats, losing all of its computers.
In Toronto, meanwhile, the party was expected to lose two of the 11 seats it won four years ago. The South-Weston ride will be presented by PC MPP for the first time with Ford’s nephew, former city councilor Michael Ford. The Liberals took the other ride in Toronto, Beaches-East York, which will be serviced by Mary-Margaret McMahon, another former city councilor.
The NDP also lost one seat in Steeltown. Hamilton East-Stoney Creek was a stronghold of the NDP, with Paul Miller representing the ride since 2007. However, Miller was expelled from the party earlier this year on charges of being a member of an Islamophobic Facebook group. He repeatedly denied the allegations and later sued the party.
On Thursday, former CFL player Neil Lumsden, the PC candidate, won the ride. Miller, who is running as an independent, came in fourth.
Horvat won her ride at the Hamilton Center, which she has represented since 2007.
Many political experts expected that this year’s election would be Croatia’s last chance to become prime minister, and any result other than that would lead to the end of her time as NDP leader.
The 59-year-old became the party’s first female leader when she was elected in 2009. Although she fell behind in third place in her first two NDP elections, Horvat survived leadership scrutiny. It was attributed to growing party support, which culminated in 2018 when the NDP received more than 1.9 million votes.
“I want to end by assuring every Ontarian that we will always, always work for you,” Horvat said. “Thank you so much.”
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