Bay of Quinte closest eastern Ontario race in 2019
Joseph Tunney | CBC News | Posted: August 15, 2021 3:20 PM | Last Updated: September 3, 2021
In 2019, Liberals squeaked by with only 2.4 per cent gap over Conservative candidate
Bay of Quinte was one of the closest races in the region in 2019, and the tightest in eastern Ontario.
Liberal Neil Ellis, the former mayor of Belleville, won the seat with 39.2 per cent of the total vote, or 1,449 more votes than his nearest competitor.
That only represented a 2.4 per cent gap between him and the riding's Conservative candidate, Tim Durkin.
Argenteuil-La Petite-Nation in western Quebec was the only race with a slimmer margin, where the Liberal candidate won by just 729 votes.
Seeking to finish that job in the Bay of Quinte, which includes Belleville and Prince Edward County, is the Conservatives' Ryan Williams, the president of a company that owns and operates several local hotels and, until recently, a Belleville city councillor.
Also in the race is NDP's Stephanie Bell, who ran in 2019 and works in the service industry; university student Erica Charlton representing the Greens; along with small business owner and singer Janine LeClerc for the People's Party.