Davidson becomes newest MP for York-Simcoe

By Mark Pavilons

Residents in York-Simcoe have a new MP.
Conservative Scot Davidson becomes the riding's newest MP, after winning Monday night's byelection.
Filling the void left behind by retiring MP Peter Van Loan, Davidson keeps the riding true blue.
Davidson captured the election, earning 8,929 votes, or 53.9% of the vote. He easily outpaced Liberal Shaun Tanaka, who picked up 4,811 votes, or 29% of the vote.
Davidson, born and raised in this riding, is a small business owner. He noted that as such, he was used to “grinding it out” and this type of hard work was put into this campaign.
King-Vaughan MPP Stephen Lecce offered his congratulations.
“We will continue to work together on our shared priorities: lower taxes for families; safety in our communities, and a growing economy across our nation,” Lecce said.
This byelection had a record nine candidates vying for the job.
NDP's Jessa McLean was a distant third with 1,244 votes (7.5%), followed by the PC Party's Dorian Baxter with 634 votes. Coming in 5th with 451 votes was Green Party candidate Mathew Lund. He was followed by Robert Geurts of the People's Party, with 314. Libertarian Keith Dean Komar was next with 95 votes, followed by Independent John The Engineer Turmel with 64 and finally National Citizens Alliance candidate Adam Suhr with 22.
The byelection saw only a 19.9% voter turnout, with 16,564 people casting ballots, of 83,179 registered voters in the riding.
The post was left vacant by retiring Peter Van Loan, who won the 2015 election with 50% of the vote. Four years ago, Van Loan edged Tanaka, who picked up 37% of the vote and 18,083 votes to Van Loan's 24,058.
York-Simcoe includes the norther portion of King, East Gwillimbury, Bradford West Gwillimbury and Georgina. In all, there are 83,097 eligible voters in the riding.