Aurora residents shared mixed reactions to last night's provincial election results, which saw both local ridings remain in the hands of the Progressive Conservatives, who returned to government with a sizeable majority.
Conservative incumbent Michael Parsa handily won his third election in Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill, while Conservative incumbent Dawn Gallagher Murphy won her second election in Newmarket-Aurora, in a tighter but ultimately comfortable race.
Provincially, the Conservatives also maintained their strong majority.
“This election, we asked the people for a mandate — a strong mandate to outlive and outlast the Trump administration … Well friends, the people have spoken,” leader Doug Ford told PC supporters at the party’s election night celebration in Toronto.
Some locals backed that message, including Robert Johnson, chief executive officer of Treasure Mills, who said he thought Ford was best suited to respond to U.S. tariffs, speaking previously with AuroraToday.
But Aurora resident Steve Fleck took umbrage with that framing of the election, saying the tariff response is federal jurisdiction.
“Every time Doug Ford opened up his mouth, he was talking about tariffs. As I said, that's what they wanted this election to be about,” he said.
“I would hope, and I would wish that a provincial government would be talking about what they have a responsibility to deliver on: health care, housing, education, and transportation,” he added. “On all four of those, the Doug Ford government and the Ontario PC government — those four are all measurably worse than they were in 2018.”
During his victory speech remarks, re-elected Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill MPP Michael Parsa emphasized his party’s plans for a strong response to tariffs, saying that “Ontario belongs to Ontarians.”
Housing advocate and CEO of Blue Door Michael Braithwaite said he thought the short election had an impact.
“I really don't think that parties other than the Conservatives really were able to get a lot of traction and get their campaigns running full steam and to gather a lot of momentum,” he said on Thursday, Feb. 27, prior to results coming in.
Braithwaite added that he was hopeful whoever formed the new government would look to work with organizations like his to help fund affordable housing.
“The need is now, not 10 years from now, but the need for speed on housing is now, and I hope that we can put the election behind us and get to work on building that housing people desperately need,” he added.
In Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill for the 2025 election, the voter turnout rate was low — of 90,295 eligible voters, only 37.81 per cent cast a ballot. Early voting was well below the provincial average, too.
In Newmarket-Aurora, voters turnout was close to the provincial engagement, with 44.66 per cent of 98,096 eligible voters taking part. Advance voting in the riding was higher than the provincial average.
Voter turnout in the riding in 2022 election was 38.19 per cent, slightly above this year's low turnout.