Milton-East Halton Hills-South flips to Liberals by 21 votes after judicial recount

By Nikhil Nikhil, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Milton Reporter

The riding of Milton–East Halton Hills–South has officially flipped from Conservative candidate Parm Gill to Liberal Kristina Tesser Derksen following a judicial recount.

The recount, which began on May 13 and concluded just after midnight on May 16, confirmed that Tesser Derksen won the federal seat by a margin of 21 votes.

Preliminary results had initially shown a 29-vote lead for the Liberal candidate, triggering an automatic judicial recount. With the recount now finalized, Tesser Derksen has been officially declared the winner.

Tesser Derksen received 32,130 votes, while Gill secured 32,101. Four other parties received a combined total of 2,352 votes.

“Every vote does count. And I think everyone noticed a record turnout in this election for advance voting because Canadians were engaged,” said Tesser Derksen.

Attempts to reach Parm Gill and the Conservative Party were unsuccessful.

Milton town councillor Adil Khalqi expressed excitement about the results.

“I’m very excited that now we have two Members of Parliament—one of them is Kristina, who is also a councillor. She understands the issues Milton faces,” said Khalqi.

“I’m very proud of Kristina for her hard work in a short period of time during the campaign. I’m very happy that she was afforded the opportunity to serve. I know she is going to make an amazing MP for this riding.”

 

Milton residents react to election outcome

“I’m quite excited about the election that just happened. I think Mark Carney is going to do wonderful things for Canada,” said Mable McDonald, a resident of Newfoundland visiting on vacation.

“It certainly was the right choice that people made in this election,” said Ontario resident Tony Adams.

“I think they’re definitely better than the previous candidates,” said Emma Galloway, from Kitchener.

Local priorities and expectations

Khalqi hopes Milton Town Hall will receive more financial support to help offset the cost of providing various services to residents.

“There’s huge demand for recreational spaces, more green space and a balanced approach on how to build infrastructure to keep up with the residential growth our community continues to experience,” he said.

Tesser Derksen believes Prime Minister Carney’s real-world experience is why Canadians chose the Liberals.

“He has an excellent résumé, good education, lots of expertise in the real world. He’s not a career politician, so I think people had a lot of confidence in him,” she said.

“I’m born and raised here in Milton. I’ve run my business here. My kids all grew up here. My husband has a small business here. I’m on town council, so I’m really engaged in the community.”

According to Milton Now, a local media outlet, 70,441 registered electors in Milton voted out of a total of 95,195—an approximate turnout of 74 per cent, excluding those who registered on election day.

Khalqi added, “The voter turnout was higher than what we usually see in elections.”

Residents have also expressed what they believe the riding’s priorities should be.

Mable McDonald said the government’s top focus should be the health-care system, especially after the recent mass casualty incident in Vancouver. According to CBC News, the accused had been under supervision through the Mental Health Act.

“Mental health is a severe problem not just in Canada, but everywhere. They should do something about it,” said Adams.

Galloway highlighted housing. “Even in my area, there are a lot of homeless people nowadays,” she said.

Next steps for Tesser Derksen
Tesser Derksen emphasized her outreach efforts during the campaign.

“We got out and started knocking on doors. We went out to events and made sure we connected with the community. I think that’s what made the difference. Also, we only had five weeks. The Conservative candidate had a year,” she said.

Her top priorities as MP are affordability, cost of living and housing.

“The priority is just the representation and advocacy that I’ve done through my previous work as a councillor,” she said. “We want to address the concerns here, which are affordability, cost of living, as well as housing—which are the big ones.”

Khalqi echoed her concerns.

“We’re a growing and young community. In terms of housing, that is absolutely one of the biggest challenges Milton faces,” he said.

Tesser Derksen added, “This election has shown that electing a Liberal government means Canadians want unity. They’re done with the negativity. As elected representatives, we have a responsibility to set that example and work together across party lines.”

Khalqi expressed optimism about future collaboration.

“Residents in the Town of Milton can expect continued advocacy and partnership with our elected officials, provincially and federally,” he said. “A strong partnership between these levels of government is needed to deliver results for the community from Milton Town Hall.”