With Borrelli win, blue wave blankets Windsor, Chatham and Sarnia region
The 3 Windsor-Essex ridings are Conservative for the 1st time in 95 years
For mainly rural parts of southwestern Ontario, Conservatives have historically made a real imprint on federal politics.
But that's not been the case for a very long time in Windsor — until now.
All three ridings within Windsor-Essex are now blue for the first time in 95 years. The number of ridings shoots up to five when you factor in the Chatham and Sarnia areas — making it a clean Conservative sweep.
"Completely shocked," was how political analyst Lydia Miljan referred to the local results.
"I had to assume that they were going to just stick with what we had."
Conservative candidate Harb Gill took the coveted riding of Windsor West away from NDP MP Brian Masse. Kathy Borrelli flipped Windsor—Tecumseh—Lakeshore away from Liberal incumbent Irek Kusmierczyk with 233 votes. The final results were not known until Tuesday afternoon.
Conservative incumbents Dave Epp (Chatham-Kent—Leamington), Marilyn Gladu (Sarnia—Lambton—Bkejwanong) and Chris Lewis (Essex) were all re-elected.
Miljan calls Masse's loss "catastrophic."
The election results were harsh for the NDP as a whole dropping a number of seats resulting in the loss of officially party status in the House of Commons. Leader Jagmeet Singh, originally from Windsor, Ont., also resigned as party leader.
The change in the political landscape locally comes as the country remains under a Liberal banner federally — just with minority status.
"Clearly the Conservatives were very effective at both getting out for their vote and having that ground game, but also they're really effective in courting the labour vote and, and pulling that away from the NDP," said Miljan.
She says it appears as though the cost of living, union jobs and the ability to secure housing are what resonated in the region.
"That certainly seems to be what pulled off those flips and those victories that the Conservatives had."
'Haven't traditionally been supportive of the auto industry'
James Stewart, president of Unifor Local 444, says Canada needs to continue to rev up its fight against American tariffs now that the election is out of the way.
His union, the largest in Windsor, endorsed local Liberal candidates, including Kusmierczyk.
"He was instrumental in bringing the billions of dollars to the Windsor Assembly plant to make sure they were fitted for the new stellar large platform, including to make it very flexible," said Stewart.
With Kusmierczyk and Masse now out of the mix, Stewart says the region has lost two auto sector champions.
"Two people that have put a lot of work," he said.
Moving forward, Stewart hopes the newly elected Conservatives can "break" some of the "traditional platforms" they've had in the past.
"They haven't traditionally been supportive of the auto industry and the investments in the auto industry, the investments and the battery plant," he said. "I think they have to because especially under the challenges we're facing today."
Stewart hopes Prime Minister Mark Carney's first order of business is to reach across the floor on Parliament Hill.
"He's got to find a way to bridge some of the gaps."
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With files from Kathleen Saylors