PC's Nicholls, NDP's Gretzky on what change looks like in a Ford government

All signs now point to Ford Nation and MPPs from across Canada are veering toward it no matter what side they're on.

PC incumbent Rick Nicholls secured about 50 per cent of his riding's votes in the 2018 Ontario provincial election Thursday night. As for Lisa Gretzky, she picked up a second-term as Windsor West MPP within minutes of the polls closing. The challenge now is about adjusting to the Ford regime.

"The NDP and the Liberals have been saying the PC is not ready to govern. Well, we fooled them," incumbent Nicholls said.

Nicholls and the PC Party

Viewers at the Nicholls camp watched the results with a close eye, cheering when they saw PC Leader Doug Ford take the stage. It's a far cry from the start of the campaign, when controversy marred the PC camp.

"When you look back at the drama that seems to have been surrounding our party starting with Patrick Brown. And then we had an interim leader in Victor Fedeli. And then suddenly, we were in a leadership race."

Ford has promised to twin Highway 3 and build concrete barriers in carnage alley on Highway 401. As for Nicholls, he said the party will have a moratorium on wind turbines and find better, more cost effective green energy projects.

"Doug is extremely personable. He has the heart of a lion ... sometimes, the other parties were trying to paint him in a different light, but that's the game," he said.

Nicholls is optimistic of the PC outlook under majority rule, saying there was little activity in southwestern Ontario under Liberal leadership.

"The fact that now we're in government, we're going to be looking at things a little differently ... When you're in opposition for seven years, you keep a close, critical eye on the government and what they're doing."

Nicholls said the Liberal government had good policies "in some cases," but was unable to find a common ground with them because of what he calls 'poison kill.'

"80 per cent of a bill would be good, but 20 per cent, we [the Ontario PC Party] can't vote on," Nicholls told Windsor Morning host Tony Doucette Friday.

One example he points to is Ontario's cannabis legislation, Bill 174, which would regulate everything about the sale of recreational marijuana in the province once legalization takes effect across Canada next July. 

The same bill also laid groundwork to put cameras on school buses, allowing automated ticketing of drivers who blow past school buses when stopped to pick up or drop off passengers.

"They knew that would wedge ... I had to vote against my bill," he said.

Nicholls will now enter his third term as Chatham–Kent—Leamington MPP.

"I'm looking at seeing more money come down to this area."

Gretzky and the NDP

The earliest win of the night went to NDP MPP Lisa Gretzky. She was projected to have won her seat for the Windsor-West riding within just seven minutes of the polls being closed.

"Last night was incredible ... We had a lot of new [volunteers] coming in to help out, so it's been fantastic."

Gretzky believed her party had a chance to form government, but started to lose hope once she noticed NDP votes were "more concentrated" than that of the Ontario PC Party.

"Their support is a little broader across the province so they had a better opportunity to more handily pick up seats than we did."

With 40.6 per cent of the vote, the Progressive Conservatives won 76 seats — well above the 63-seat threshold needed for a majority government.

"They key part of that is that Doug Ford said a lot of good things. He had a lot of good sound bytes or — as we call them — bumper sticker slogans," Gretzky said.

"I think if had the Conservatives actually put out a platform ... for people to see really what their plan is, I think the vote might've gone a little differently. They navigated the way they wanted to and clearly the way they needed to."

When Gretzky walks into Queen's Park, she will see 40 seats occupied by fellow NDP MPPs — doubling the party's seat count from 2014. She said the ideological divide between the PCs and NDP will force a lot of "hard work."

"I've worked with many of their members already. We have a good relationship. I look forward to that continuing, but they're not going to get off scot-free."