Amanda Persico
Oak Ridges-Markham Conservative candidate Paul Calandra (left) chats with Lui Temelkovski after defeating the Liberal incumbent last night.
Whitchurch-Stouffville
October 15, 2008 11:30 AM
Conservative candidate Paul Calandra defeated Liberal incumbent Lui Temelkovski by 400 votes.
With all 364 polls reporting, Mr. Calandra had garnered 31,963 votes to Mr. Temelkovski’s 31,533. In percentage terms, it was 42.1 per cent of votes cast for Mr. Calandra, 41.5 per cent for Mr. Temelkovski.
Most voters had long gone before Mr. Temelkovski appeared at Mr. Calandra’s victory celebration at Boston Pizza in Stouffville to concede defeat around 1 a.m.
Mr. Calandra will join his Conservative colleagues as the party once again won power in a minority government.
The Oak Ridges-Markam result capped off a see-saw battle in which both camps enjoyed a slim lead at different times during the night as results were reported.
There only is an automatic recount if the first- and second-place finishers are separated by less than 0.1 per cent of the total votes cast in their electoral district.
The two front-runners in the riding were separated by 0.6 per cent.
The sprawling riding takes in Whitchurch-Stouffville as well as parts of Markham, Richmond Hill and King.
The NDP candidate, Andy Arifin, had about 9.4 per cent of the vote. The Green Party’s Richard Taylor garnered 7 per cent.