The Numbers: About last night in Ontario...

Doug Ford gambled when he called an early election, but it paid off in spades last night as his Progressive Conservatives won their third consecutive majority government. It wasn’t necessarily the bigger mandate he wanted, but a win’s a win. And that was a win. The surprise of the night, though, was the performance of Marit Stiles’s NDP. The party’s vote went down significantly, as the polls predicted. But the NDP still managed to squeeze a lot of seats out of a lot less of the vote, as incumbency ruled the day in what was an otherwise status quo election. We try to make some sense out of how the NDP managed to defy expectations. And what do we make of the performance of Bonnie Crombie’s Liberals — good enough to regain recognized party status, but not good enough to get their leader elected? CORRECTION: Toronto–St. Paul's flipped from the NDP to the Liberals, not Toronto Centre. Apologies for the error! Want even more of The Numbers? Members of our Patreon get extra mailbag episodes every week and special episodes monthly, as well as access to our Discord. You can get these exclusives and support our joint project by becoming a member of our Patreon.   / thenumberspod   You can also support our work at: https://www.thewrit.ca/ https://www.338canada.com/