Progressive Conservative Merrilee Fullerton wins Kanata–Carleton

Progressive Conservative Merrilee Fullerton, a former family physician and health advocate, has been elected in the riding of Kanata–Carleton.

With all polls in, Fullerton has 43.6 per cent of the vote. NDP candidate John Hansen, an engineer involved in the tech sector is in second with 28.6 and Liberal Stephanie Maghnam is in third with 17.2 per cent of the vote. 

Fullerton had a 7,928 vote lead over Hansen.

• Ontario Votes 2018 | Complete coverage

Kanata–Carleton was expected to be an interesting race, with incumbent Jack MacLaren facing off against his former party in the newly redrawn, suburban and rural riding.

The riding has shrunk significantly since the last election, with the old Carleton–Mississippi Mills riding losing 20 per cent of its territory to Carleton in the south and 35 per cent to Lanark–Frontenac–Kingston in the west.

MacLaren ran under the Trillium Party banner after being expelled from the PC caucus for comments he made about French-language rights. 

He has held the seat since 2011, when he won a bitter nomination battle against then PC incumbent Norm Sterling — a veteran Conservative MPP who served in Mike Harris's cabinet. A fifth-generation farmer, MacLaren has seen continued strong rural support, even while battling scandal.

Also running in the riding were:

• Andrew West for the Green Party of Ontario.
• Peter d'Entremont for the Libertarian Party.
• Robert LeBrun, running for the None of the Above Direct Democracy Party.