Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Norlock sweeps to victory, Liberals crash

Conservative Party incumbent Rick Norlock swept to victory in Northumberland-Quinte West, while Liberal candidate Paul Macklin faced a humiliating defeat.
But, it was the Green Party candidate Ralph Torrie was the biggest news of the night as it doubled its support with nine per cent of the total vote, up from 4.7 per cent in 2006.
Norlock won with 22,790 votes (251/274 polls reporting), about 47.7 per cent of the vote, compared to 41.3 per cent in 2006.
Both the Liberals and NDP suffered at the hands of the Green Party, as Liberal support dropped to 14,018, a massive drop from the 22, 563 votes in 2006, an eight per cent drop in the total vote.
The NDP saw a four percentage point drop from 18 per cent of the vote in 2006, down to 14 per cent this time.
It would appear the voter turnout was down, but no final figures are available. Certainly, the Liberals did not get their vote out for the election.