Hamilton voters elected two Conservative Party candidates at the federal level for the first time in a long time as Ned Kuruc flipped Hamilton East – Stoney Creek and Dan Muys retained Flamborough – Glanbrook – Brant North.
HAMILTON EAST – STONEY CREEK
Kuruc’s win in Hamilton East – Stoney Creek marks the first time that the seat has been won by a Conservative federally since the riding was created in 2004.
Kuruc also ran in 2021, where he received the second-highest percentage of the vote of any federal Conservative candidate in the riding at 28 per cent.
He built on that support in this election and received endorsements from former Liberal Member of Parliament Bob Bratina, former Stoney Creek Councillor Doug Conley, and former Hamilton Mountain Progressive Conservative MP Duncan Beattie.
In an exclusive interview with The Hamilton Independent before the election, Kuruc said that he was “confident” that he would be elected and surpass his 28 per cent vote share from 2021.
In the end, he did both.
Kuruc beat out Collins, earning 32,865 votes (48.72 per cent) and increasing his vote share by over 18.5 percentage points compared to 2021.
The race was close, however, with Collins receiving 31,372 votes, only 1,493 behind Kuruc.
Meanwhile, NDP support completely collapsed with their candidate Nayla Mithani receiving only 2,451 votes (3.63 per cent), over 18 percentage points lower than Nick Milanovic in 2021.
Collins losing the riding reignites rumours that he will eventually run for mayor of Hamilton in 2026.
FLAMBOROUGH – GLANBROOK – BRANT NORTH
In Flamborough – Glanbrook – Brant North, Muys, who ran for the second time and was the incumbent in the riding, pulled off a comfortable victory with 35,245 votes (52.77 per cent).
In second was Liberal candidate Chuck Phillips, who received 28,814 votes (43.14 per cent).
Whereas Muys won the 2021 election by 3,020 votes and about five percentage points above the Liberal candidate, he managed to increase his margin of victory to 6,431 votes (9.63 percentage points).
The riding’s new boundaries likely helped somewhat, with Brant North added to the geography and Upper Stoney Creek removed.
HAMILTON MOUNTAIN
On Hamilton Mountain, residents re-elected Liberal Lisa Hepfner, who received 27,190 votes (45.37 per cent).
Although he did not get elected, Conservative candidate Ken Hewitt managed to achieve the highest vote share in the party’s history in the riding with 41.5 per cent.
He came only 2,303 votes short (3.9 percentage points).
HAMILTON CENTRE
In a surprising result in Hamilton Centre, NDP incumbent Matthew Green was bumped to third place, with Liberal candidate Aslam Rana winning the election and Conservative Hayden Lawrence coming in second.
Conservative candidate Hayden Lawrence received 29.94 per cent of the vote, the party’s best showing in the riding’s history.
Rana won with 37.64 per cent of the vote.
HAMILTON WEST – ANCASTER – DUNDAS
In Hamilton West – Ancaster – Dundas, Liberal candidate and City Councillor John-Paul Danko (West/Central Mountain) retained the seat for the party.
The riding was previously represented by Liberal Filomena Tassi, but she decided to retire after serving since 2015.
Danko was elected with a dominant 56.02 per cent of the vote, while Conservative Erika Alexander finished second with 36.87 per cent.
Hamilton City Council will now have to decide how to fill Danko’s vacant Ward 8 seat.
They can either appoint someone to serve the remaining 17 months of his term or opt to hold a by-election.
Councils sometimes opt to appoint the person who came in second place in the ward in the previous municipal election.
In the case of Ward 8, that was Sonia Brown, who received 22.82 per cent of the vote compared to Danko’s 62.18 per cent in the October 2022 municipal election.
It remains to be seen what Council will decide.
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
