Hamilton goes blue as Ontario PC Party wins three of five local seats

It’s the first time the PCs have won three seats in Hamilton since 1995. Pictured: Hamilton Mountain MPP-Elect Monica Ciriello. Photo Credit: Monica Ciriello/X. 

The City of Hamilton has officially gone blue, with Premier Doug Ford’s Ontario PC Party winning three of five local seats on election night last Thursday.

Donna Skelly was re-elected for a third time in Flamborough-Glanbrook, Neil Lumsden was re-elected for a second time in Hamilton East-Stoney Creek, and political newcomer Monica Ciriello was elected in Hamilton Mountain.

It was the first time that Hamilton residents elected at least three members of the Ontario PC Party since the 1995 provincial election when Mike Harris was premier.

At that time, Hamilton’s PC MPPs were Trevor Pettit (Hamilton Mountain), Lillian Ross (Hamilton West), Ed Doyle (Wentworth East), and Toni Skarica (Wentworth North).

In fact, just two elections ago, in 2018, the Ontario NDP held four of Hamilton’s five seats with Andrea Horwath holding down Hamilton Centre, Paul Miller in Hamilton East-Stoney Creek, Monique Taylor in Hamilton Mountain, and Sandy Shaw in Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas.

But Neil Lumsden managed to flip Hamilton East-Stoney Creek to the PCs in 2022 after MPP Paul Miller was controversially kicked out of the NDP caucus.

And on Thursday, Monica Ciriello, formerly the City of Hamilton’s top by-law official, was able to flip Hamilton Mountain to the PCs after incumbent candidate Monique Taylor opted to leave the Ontario NDP in order to become the area’s candidate for the federal NDP led by Jagmeet Singh.

The last time the Ontario PC Party won in Hamilton Mountain was 1995 and, before that, 1975.

Even though there were two Hamilton ridings that the PCs did not win, they still managed to increase their total number of votes and percentage of the final vote in those ridings, in addition to the three ridings where they won.

In Hamilton Centre, where PC candidate Sarah Bokhari lost out to Ontario NDP candidate Robin Lennox, the PCs still saw their total votes received increase by 3,641 and vote percentage increase by 3.51 points compared to the most recent election in the riding which was a 2023 by-election.

HAMILTON CENTRE ELECTION RESULTS

NDP – Robin Lennox – 12,839 – 38.4%

LIB – Eileen Walker – 7,132 – 21.3%

PC – Sarah Bokhari – 6,331 – 18.9%

IND – Sarah Jama – 4,977 – 14.9%

GRN – Lucia Iannantuono – 1,642 – 4.9%

NBP – Mitch Novosad – 441 – 1.3%

In Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas, where PC candidate John Demik lost out to Ontario NDP candidate Sandy Shaw, the PCs saw their total votes received increase by 2,747 and vote percentage increase by 0.81 points compared to the 2022 provincial election.

HAMILTON WEST-ANCASTER-DUNDAS ELECTION RESULTS

NDP – Sandy Shaw – 20,203 – 38.8%

PC – John Demik – 17,599 – 33.8%

LIB – Julia Brown – 11,568 – 22.2%

GRN – Guy Bisson – 1,839 – 3.5%

NBP – Lee Weiss Vassor – 601 – 1.2%

NAP – Spencer Rocchi – 231 – 0.4%

ERP – Nori Smith – 79 – 0.2%

In Hamilton East-Stoney Creek, where PC candidate Neil Lumsden was re-elected, the PCs saw their total votes received increase by 4,235 and vote percentage increase by 7.5 points.

HAMILTON EAST-STONEY CREEK ELECTION RESULTS

PC – Neil Lumsden – 16,401 – 42.1%

LIB – Heino Doessing – 12,323 – 31.6%

NDP – Zaigham Butt – 6,862 – 17.6%

GRN – Pascale Marchand – 2,049 – 5.3%

ONP – Heather Curnew – 595 – 1.5%

NBP – Weislawa Derlatka – 530 – 1.4%

COM – Drew Garvie – 223 – 0.6%

In Flamborough-Glanbrook, where PC candidate Donna Skelly was re-elected, the PCs saw their total votes received increase by 3,484 and vote percentage increase by 3.2 points.

FLAMBOROUGH-GLANBROOK ELECTION RESULTS

PC – Donna Skelly – 23,790 – 49.4%

LIB – Joshua Bell – 15,135 – 31.4%

NDP – Lilly Noble – 6,095 – 12.7%

GRN – Janet Errygers – 1,923 – 4.0%

NBP – Kristen Halfpenny – 1,233 – 2.6%

Finally, in Hamilton Mountain, where PC candidate Monica Ciriello was elected, the PCs saw their total votes received increase by 3,738 and vote percentage increase by 6.16 points.

HAMILTON MOUNTAIN ELECTION RESULTS

PC – Monica Ciriello – 13,949 – 36.2%

LIB – Dawn Danko – 11,933 – 30.9%

NDP – Kojo Damptey – 10,037 – 26.0%

GRN – Joshua Czerniga – 1,544 – 4.0%

NBP – Layla Protopapa – 392 – 1.0%

NAP – Dan Preston – 278 – 0.7%

IND – Ejaz Butt – 267 – 0.7%

ONP – Bing Wong – 178 – 0.5%

Now that he is re-elected, Ford will soon be announcing his Cabinet and it remains to be seen whether or not any of Hamilton’s representatives will be chosen for a role.

Lumsden was named to Ford’s Cabinet right away when he was elected in June 2022. 

He was appointed as Minister of Tourism, Culture, and Sport before Ford changed his portfolio in June 2024 to Minister of Sport with MPP Stan Cho becoming Minister of Tourism, Culture, and Gaming.

Skelly was named Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation, and Trade in June 2018 and served in that role until October 2021 when she was switched to being the Parliamentary Assistant to the Attorney General until June 2022.

In August 2022, she became Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

Skelly has not served in Cabinet so far.