Little has changed at Queen\u2019s Park after Ontario Premier Doug Ford\u2019s Progressive Conservatives and the Opposition New Democrats held on to their seats in three byelections Thursday.<\/p>\n
Progressive Conservative Jeff Beattie, a longtime Hamilton city councillor, won the riding of Hamilton East\u2013Stoney Creek after capturing nearly 39 per cent of the vote over NDP candidate Monique Taylor\u2019s 33 per cent. Taylor had been the provincial representative in a neighbouring riding for 14 years until she resigned to make a failed bid for a federal seat.<\/p>\n
Liberal Heino Doessing came third with 23 per cent of the vote.<\/p>\n
Conservative Susan Lahey won the riding of York\u2013Simcoe with 49.8 per cent of the vote over Liberal Naomi Davison\u2019s 38.8 per cent. Lahey takes over the seat of former Treasury Board president Caroline Mulroney, who resigned in June.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The riding has been held by conservatives since its creation in 2007.<\/p>\n
Ford congratulated Beattie and Lahey, saying voters have backed the party that will stand up to U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want the people of Ontario and all of Canada to know that we\u2019re going to continue to fight,\u201d Ford said at the Beattie campaign party in Hamilton.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to fight against Donald Trump. We\u2019re going to make sure that we protect people\u2019s jobs, protect their communities and protect them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Beattie said it\u2019s \u201cthe honour of a lifetime\u201d to now represent constituents at the provincial level.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think primarily, as we continue to enter into uncertain times with our largest trading partner to the south, it became more and more apparent people are feeling incredible anxiety,\u201d Beattie said. \u201cThey\u2019re feeling some real fear. What does the future hold? And it became very, very apparent that somebody like Premier Ford is really best suited as the champion of Ontario, and I want to be the champion of Hamilton East\u2013Stoney Creek in that same way.\u201d<\/p>\n
In what was a two-way race in Scarborough Southwest between the Liberals and New Democrats, NDP\u2019s Fatima Shaban emerged as the winner with more than 40 per cent of the vote.<\/p>\n
At her victory speech, Shaban promised voters that she would \u201cfight like hell\u201d to make their lives more affordable.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday they spoke loud and clear that affordability is a must,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is not an afterthought.\u201d<\/p>\n
NDP Leader Marit Stiles also claimed victory for the party.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is more clear than ever before in these three byelections, these historic three byelections, that there is only one party that is going to defeat Doug Ford and the conservatives, and it is the New Democratic Party,\u201d she said at Shaban\u2019s victory party.<\/p>\n
Candidates said long-standing provincial concerns such as health care, education and affordability came up often as they knocked on doors. But voters are also concerned about Canada\u2019s trade war with the United States.<\/p>\n
The escalating trade tensions helped Ford in these byelections, said Peter Graefe, a political science professor at McMaster University.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomewhat naturally, people tend to look for the leader to bring them through tough times, and I think it\u2019s benefiting Doug Ford again in this moment, and maybe particularly in a place like Hamilton East\u2013Stoney Creek where the steel tariffs are going to bite most directly,\u201d Graefe said Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s harder than for the opposition parties to make this a referendum on other things, whether it\u2019s urban boundary expansion in Hamilton or even the probity around things like jet planes and expense accounts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Graefe was referring to several scandals that have swirled around Ford and his government in recent months. That includes Ford\u2019s decision to buy a private jet for nearly $29 million, then return it days later after a public uproar.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The government has also come under fire for allowing Toronto-area ministers to stay in hotels in the city on the public dime. That led to the resignation of Tourism Minister Stan Cho while several other legislators have also had to pay back the expenses.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s probably a pretty good day for Doug Ford, ultimately, and his government,\u201d Graefe said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe not surprisingly for byelections held in the middle of summer before a long weekend \u2013 they were kind of nothing burgers.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Elections Ontario\u2019s unofficial byelection results, the voter turnout across all three races was just over 25 per cent.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 3, 2026.<\/p>\n
Liam Casey, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Little has changed at Queen\u2019s Park after Ontario Premier Doug Ford\u2019s Progressive Conservatives and the Opposition New Democrats…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":882576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,11867,714,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-882575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-ontario-quebec","tag-politics","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=882575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}