NDP loses long-held Hamilton Centre riding, as CBC projects win by Liberal Aslam Rana
'You can work as hard as you can possibly work and still come up short,' says NDP's Matthew Green
In a dramatic change for Hamilton Centre, the NDP no longer hold the federal riding — a first since it was created in 2004.
After a close race, Liberal candidate Aslam Rana won what's long been an NDP stronghold. With 225 of 227 polls counted, he had just over 37 per cent of the vote, or 20,254 votes.
Rana was in a tight race for most of the evening with Conservative candidate Hayden Lawrence, who had 16,543 votes. Meanwhile, NDP incumbent Matthew Green, who was elected in 2019, was in third, with 15,689 votes.
Green admitted defeat in the early hours of Tuesday morning, in a speech to supporters.
"My heart is full and I am grateful and there is so much love to be had in our community despite the division and uncertainty," Green said.
"I will tell you coming into this I had the quiet confidence in the work we put in. But sometimes in life, as I tell my son, you can work as hard as you can possibly work and still come up short."
Rana spoke to CBC Hamilton around 1 a.m. Tuesday after he'd established a lead over Lawrence.
An engineering professor at Toronto Metropolitan University, Rana said he thought he had a chance of winning with Mark Carney as the leader fo the Liberal Party.
"The way he stood against the U.S. and unjustified tariffs, I was confident he'd make the difference," Rana said.
He lives in Mississauga, but said he'd be moving to Hamilton "first thing" as he'd made a "pinky promise" to his friends and supporters.
When he decided to run, Rana had told his family the campaign would be "no big deal," his daughter Farah said in a speech early Tuesday.
"The next thing you know, our house looked like an Amazon warehouse with campaign flyers," she said. "But seriously, we had a month and a half to build a campaign. With a lot of heart, a lot of a coffee and a questionable sleep schedule, we did it."
Conservatives projected to win Hamilton East-Stoney Creek
CBC News projects Hamilton East-Stoney Creek will be represented by Conservative Ned Kuruc, who was ahead of Liberal incumbent Chad Collins by fewer than 2,000 votes with 231 of 237 polls counted.
Nationally, Liberal Leader Mark Carney will form government but whether it will be in a minority or majority Parliament still remains unclear.
In Haldimand-Norfolk, Conservative incumbent Leslyn Lewis won again as did Conservative incumbent Dean Allison in Niagara West.
"You'll never know what kind of night you'll have when you go into this game," Allison told CBC News. "I'm grateful voters put their trust in me again to represent them."
Conservative candidate Dan Muys, another incumbent, won in Flamborough-Glanbrook-Brant North.
Liberals win Hamilton West, Mountain
In Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas, Liberal candidate John-Paul Danko won over the NDP's Roberto Henriquez and Conservative Erika Alexander, among others.
Danko was a city councillor before running in the federal election. Early Tuesday morning, he told CBC Hamilton one of the biggest issues he will pursue as MP is affordability and the cost of housing.
"It's been an amazing honour to represent residents on council," said Danko. "I see this as an opportunity to serve their interest on a broader scale."
'Truly humbling'
In Hamilton Mountain, Liberal incumbent Lisa Hepfner won again. In Burlington, Liberal incumbent Karina Gould was reelected.
Gould told CBC Hamilton she's "really thrilled" she and the Liberals have been reelected.
"We've got a new leader, new direction, and it's so exciting that the people of Burlington are with us on that and excited to move forward," she said.
Gould said the new government will work "to make sure that we are protecting Canada's economy and we're protecting our sovereignty. That is the most important thing for us to do right now. And then, of course, investing in the economy, building up and strengthening our industries is also really important."
Liberal incumbent Chris Bittle won in St. Catharines.
Bittle told CBC Hamilton shortly before midnight he was "feeling great."
"It's really hard to describe, but it's truly humbling," he said.
Bittle has represented the riding of St. Catharines in Ottawa since 2015, but said this time around, "the mood is different" as the country went into a trade war with the United States, especially at a city so close to the border.
"That really coloured everything in terms of the election," he said. "I'm excited to have a good time tonight, but the work begins tomorrow to address those concerns."
Conservative reelected in Brantford—Brant South—Six Nations
Conservative Larry Brock has been reelected to his Brantford—Brant South—Six Nations seat.
He said he was "extremely thrilled," with the results of the night.
"I probably went to bed last night knowing that I did everything that I could and I knew the team did everything that they could and we all executed extremely well," Brock told CBC Hamilton.
He said he was "very nervous" for the first 30 minutes while the first poll results were coming in, saying he faced strong competition with "a very strong candidate locally who is very well liked and well known in this community." He added that he thought Mark Carney brought "a new sort of air of enthusiasm to the Liberal Party."
The results in two other Niagara region ridings were less certain until early Tuesday morning.
Niagara Falls—Niagara–on–the–Lake saw a tight race between Conservative incumbent Tony Baldinelli and Liberal candidate Andrea Kaiser, with Baldinelli winning, ahead by fewer than 3,000 votes with 201 of 202 polls counted.
Niagara South was also a close race. Liberal incumbent Vance Badawey, who held the seat since 2015, lost to Conservative candidate Fred Davies.
Results for Hamilton and Niagara regions
Live results from across Canada can be found here.
Results for the following ridings were last updated around 10:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday and will continue to be updated as votes come in. Candidates are listed in alphabetical order by last name:
Brantford—Brant South—Six Nations (221/222 polls reported)
- Leslie Bory, Independent - 0.2%
- Larry Brock, Conservative - 52.6%
- Mike Clancy, Independent - 0.2%
- Karleigh Csordas, Green - 1.7%
- Anne Gajerski-Cauley, NDP - 3.7%
- Clo Marie, Independent - 0.1%
- Joy O'Donnell, Liberal - 40.9%
- Nicholas Xenos, PPC - 0.6%
Burlington (265/267 polls reporting)
- Michael Bator, PPC - 0.7%
- Michael Beauchemin, NDP - 2.0%
- Emily Brown, Conservative - 40.9%
- Karina Gould, Liberal - 55.4%
- Paul Harper, Parti Rhinocéros Party of Canada - 0.1%
- Kyle Hutton, Green - 0.8%
- Ocean Marshall, Libertarian Party of Canada - 0.1%
Flamborough—Glanbrook—Brant North (207/209 polls reporting)
- Nikita Mahood, PPC - 0.8%
- Dan Muys, Conservative - 53%
- Anita Payne, Green - 0.9%
- Chuck Phillips, Liberal - 43%
- Peter Werhun, NDP - 2.4%
Haldimand—Norfolk (265/266 polls reporting)
- Lily Eggink, Christian Heritage Party of Canada - 0.7%
- Henry Geissler, PPC - 0.9%
- Nate Hawkins, Green - 1.1%
- Shannon Horner-Shepherd, NDP - 3.3%
- Leslyn Lewis, Conservative - 57.5%
- Colin Walsh, Liberal - 36.4%
Hamilton Centre (225/227 polls reporting)
- Cody Chenier, Parti Rhinocéros Party of Canada - 0.3%
- Sandy Crawley, Green - 1.4%
- Carla Green, No Affiliation - 0.4%
- Matthew Green, NDP - 28.9%
- Hayden Lawrence, Conservative - 30.5%
- Michael Loomans, No Affiliation - 0.2%
- Aslam Rana, Liberal - 37.3%
- David Speicher, PPC - 1.0%
Hamilton East—Stoney Creek (236/237 polls reporting)
- Jim Boutsikakis, PPC - 1.1%
- Chad Collins, Liberal - 46.4%
- Ned Kuruc, Conservative - 48.8% (CBC News projects)
- Nayla Mithani, NDP - 3.6%
Hamilton Mountain (185/186 polls reporting)
- Rolf Gerstenberger, Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada - 0.3%
- Lisa Hepfner, Liberal - 45.3%
- Ken Hewitt, Conservative - 41.6%
- Monique Taylor, NDP - 12%
- Bing Wong, PPC - 0.8%
Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas (232/233 polls reporting)
- Erika Alexander, Conservative - 37%
- Georgia Beauchemin, Green - 1.2%
- John-Paul Danko, Liberal - 55.9%
- Jim Enos, Christian Heritage Party of Canada - 0.2%
- Roberto Henriquez, NDP - 5.2%
- Ava Sharavi, PPC - 0.4%
Niagara Falls—Niagara-on-the-Lake (201/202 polls reporting)
- Dinah Althorpe, PPC - 0.8%
- Yawar Anwar, Centrist Party of Canada - 0.2%
- Tony Baldinelli, Conservative - 49.3%
- Andrea Kaiser, Liberal - 44.7%
- Shannon Mitchell, NDP - 3.8%
- Daniel Shakhmundes, Libertarian Party of Canada - 0.3%
- Celia Taylor, Green - 0.8%
Niagara South (264/266 polls reporting)
- Vance Badawey, Liberal - 43.4%
- Natashia Bergen, Green - 0.9%
- Fred Davies, Conservative - 48.3%
- Chantal McCollum, NDP - 5.6%
- Peter Taras, PPC - 1.5%
- David Vedova, Christian Heritage Party of Canada - 0.3%
Niagara West (236/237 polls reporting)
- Justin Abando, NDP - 3.2%
- Dean Allison, Conservative - 52%
- Ryan Anderson, PPC - 0.8%
- Dave Bylsma, Christian Heritage Party of Canada - 1%
- Jennifer Korstanje, Liberal - 42.9%
St. Catharines (223/224 polls reporting)
- Chris Bittle, Liberal - 51.9%
- Taha Alexander Haj-Ahmad, Centrist Party of Canada - 0.3%
- Karen Orlandi, NDP - 6.0%
- Christopher Reilly, Independent - 0.5%
- Bas Sluijmers, Conservative - 40.6%
- Dennis Wilson, PPC - 0.8%
With files from Eva Salinas