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The Progressive Conservatives have all but locked up a pair of seats in two provincial byelections.
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PC candidate Zee Hamid is holding about a 10-percentage point lead on Liberal Galen Naidoo Harris in Milton, just west of Mississauga, with only four polls left to report.
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Hamid, a three-term Milton councillor, donated to the Liberals as recently as 2022 and unsuccessfully sought a federal Liberal nomination in 2015.
Lambton-Kent-Middlesex had been held since 2011 by Monte McNaughton, who served in Opposition for the PCs and was then made a cabinet minister in Premier Doug Ford’s government, and Tory candidate Pinsonneault appears set to retain the seat for the party.
The Liberal candidate there is Cathy Burghardt-Jesson, the mayor of Lucan Biddulph. Kathryn Shailer is running for the NDP while Andraena Tilgner is the Green candidate.
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In Milton, Edie Strachan is the NDP candidate and Kyle Hutton is running for the Greens.
Ford paid Milton a lot of attention during the byelection and in the lead up to it with announcements on GO Transit service and Hwy. 413, and has had many cabinet ministers and other caucus members canvassing there.
While a Tory loss in Milton would not affect Ford’s majority, the party already lost a seat in a byelection last year that had been held by another cabinet minister and doesn’t want a repeat.
For the Liberals, the byelection marks the first real test for Bonnie Crombie, who was crowned leader in December. The former Mississauga mayor decided against running for the Milton seat herself.
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