Liberal candidate Neil Ellis supporters await results late into the night at Belleville’s Sans Souci restaurant. Photo by Rhythm Rathi, QNet News
By Jacob Willis [1]
BELLEVILLE – Conservative candidates were leading in all three local ridings as midnight approached on Election Night 2021.
At close to 11:30 p.m., Conservative challenger Ryan Williams was leading Liberal incumbent and former Belleville mayor Neil Ellis by around 1,100 votes in the Bay of Quinte riding.
“We probably won’t get the full results in until tomorrow,” Ellis told QNet News in an interview at his post-election gathering in Belleville’s Sans Souci restaurant.
Others in the race were Erica Charlton (Green), Stephanie Bell (New Democratic Party) and Janine Leclerc (People’s Party of Canada).
“It’s been a fantastic run,” Neil Ellis told QNet News. “I ran this year to finish what we’ve started. We need more affordable housing, we need high-speed broadband. These are jobs I want to complete.”
In Hastings-Lennox and Addington, Conservative Shelby Kramp-Neuman led Liberal Mike Bossio by about 1,600 votes as of 11:30 p.m. Kramp-Neuman is the daughter of Daryl Kramp, a former Conversative MP for the riding. Kramp is the current Conservative MPP. Bossio held the riding as MP between 2015 and 2019 before being defeated by Derek Sloan. Sloan, now an Independent candidate, was running in Alberta.
The other candidates were Reg Wilson (Green), Matilda DeBues (NDP) and James Babcock (PPC).
In Northumberland-Peterborough South, incumbent Conservative Philip Lawrence was leading Liberal Alison Lester by about 2,500 votes. The other candidates were Christina Wilson (Green), Kim McArthur-Jackson (NDP) and Nathan Lang (PPC).
Liberal candidate Mike Bossio (checkered jacket), chats with attendees at his post-election gathering at the Waterfront Pub and Terrace in Napanee. Bossio was campaigning door-to-door until polls closed at 9:30 pm. Photo by Maria Toews, QNet News
Napanee polling stations appeared fairly empty at 8:30 p.m. Photo by Maria Toews, QNet News
Reports of long lineups in polling stations in some parts of the country, including Toronto and Kingston, were not echoed locally.
At the polling station on the Loyalist College campus, supervisor Donald Pysklywec said there was a “steady stream” of voters.
“The mid- to late-afternoon hours were the busiest, but the night hours are dead,” Pysklywec said with about an hour to go before polls close at 9:30 p.m.
Reports from Napanee (Hastings-Lennox and Addington riding) say that there were never more than four people in line at polling stations there.
QNet News reporter Felicia Massey called the Brighton Legion polling centre (Northumberland-Peterborough South riding) a “ghost town.”
Elections Canada said that those still waiting at the time of the polls’ closing would still be able to submit a ballot – so long as they were in line by 9:30 p.m.
CBC News said they expect wait times to reach up to two hours after polls closed in Toronto. Students were still waiting outside residence polling stations on the Queen’s University campus in Kingston.
Elections Canada reported 1.2 million voting kits were issued to electors as of Sept. 18. It may take until Wednesday to count these mail-in ballots.
– with files from Maria Toews, Felicia Massey, Shira Rubinoff, Rhythm Rathi and Charlotte Oduol