Progressive Conservative candidate Zee Hamid is holding a nine percentage point lead on Liberal Galen Naidoo Harris with more than 90 percent of polls reporting in Milton, just west of Mississauga

Fellow PC candidate Steve Pinsonneault has drawn 56 per cent of the votes with 90 per cent of the polls reporting in the Tory stronghold of Lambton−Kent−Middlesex.

Milton has been vacant since cabinet minister Parm Gill resigned in February to join the federal Conservatives.

Hamid, a three−term Milton councillor, donated to the Liberals as recently as 2022 and unsuccessfully sought a federal Liberal nomination in 2015.

Polls and observers suggested Milton would have been a tighter race.

Lambton−Kent−Middlesex was held since 2011 by Monte McNaughton, who served in Opposition for the Progressive Conservatives and was made a cabinet minister in Premier Doug Ford’s government, and Tory candidate Pinsonneault appears set to retain the seat for the party.

The Liberal candidate there is Cathy Burghardt−Jesson, the mayor of Lucan Biddulph. Kathryn Shailer is running for the NDP while Andraena Tilgner is the Green candidate.

In Milton, Edie Strachan is the NDP candidate and Kyle Hutton is running for the Greens.

Ford paid Milton a lot of attention during the byelection and in the lead up to it, with announcements on GO Transit service and Highway 413, and has had many cabinet ministers and other caucus members canvassing there.

While a Tory loss in Milton would not have affected Ford’s majority, the party already lost a seat in a byelection last year that had been held by another cabinet minister and doesn’t want a repeat.

For the Liberals, the byelection marks the first real test for Bonnie Crombie, who was crowned leader in December. The former Mississauga mayor considered then decided against running for the Milton seat herself.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 2, 2024.

The Canadian Press