DAN CEARNS The Standard
DURHAM: Jamil Jivani will replace Erin O’Toole as the Durham riding’s Member of Parliament after winning a by-election on Monday, March 4th.
Mr. Jivani, the Conservative Party’s candidate, won the election with 57.4 percent of votes cast. The total votes he received was 18,610.
“There are many conservatives like me who acknowledge, in 2024, it is our party that best represents the values of our communities,” said Jamil Jivani during his acceptance speech. He added, “If I have learned anything from Pierre Poilievre it is the importance of focus and discipline. So we can get the job done and change this country.”
Coming in second place was Liberal Party candidate and current Scugog Ward 3 Councillor Robert Rock. He received 7,285 votes, which is 22.5 percent of the votes cast.
“I’m overjoyed with the campaign. I think we worked really hard, and to me, the biggest thing I wanted to get out of this was to be able to look back and have zero regrets. I have to say the campaign we put together, the work we put in, I have absolutely no regrets with what we did,” Mr. Rock told The Standard. “Yes, it wasn’t the result we hoped for, but that is up to the will of the voters. From our perspective, we did everything we could possibly do to have a positive outcome today.”
The NDP’s Chris Borgia finished the by-election with 3,363 votes, which was 10.4 percent of the votes cast. PPC candidate Patricia Conlin received 1,435 votes, and Green Party candidate Kevin MacKenzie received 698 votes. Independent candidate Pranay Gunti received 374 votes, and Centrist Party candidate Khalid Qureshi received 336 votes. Two hundred and thirty-eight people voted for United Party of Canada candidate Grant Abraham, and 62 people voted for Rhinoceros Party candidate Adam Smith.
Voter turnout was listed at 27.8 percent of the over 116,000 eligible voters in the riding.