Gates re-elected with close to 55 per cent of the vote
February 28, 2025 at 4:28 AM
Fort Erie will have another four years of Wayne Gates as their representative at Queen’s Park.
On Thursday, he was re-elected as MPP for the Niagara Falls riding, which covers Niagara Falls, Fort Erie, and Niagara-on-the-Lake.
He was victorious with nearly 55 per cent of the vote.
Gates was first elected in 2014 through a byelection and was placed as the riding’s MPP a second time that same year, as well as in 2018 and 2022, and again on Thursday in a snap election called by Ontario PC leader and Premier Doug Ford.
The PCs maintained their majority government Thursday by winning 80 ridings, followed by the NDP with 25, the Liberals with 14 and the Green Party with two.
Gates, an NDP, received a total of 25,549 votes, followed by PC candidate Ruth Ann Nieuwesteeg, a Niagara Falls city councillor, who was supported by 35 per cent of the electorate through a total of 18,569 votes.
Liberal candidate Shafoli Kapur received 6.32 per cent of the vote, placing third.
The contest also included Gary Dumelie from the New Blue Party, who finished ahead of Green Party candidate Celia Taylor.
Andrew Soifert from the Ontario Party and Joedy Burdett, an independent, also competed.
The NDP will remain the official opposition to the PCs.
This is the third straight majority government win for the PCs.
Newsrooms in the province began calling the majority victory a mere 10 minutes after polls shut down at 9 p.m.
Credit: Wayne Gates | FacebookLess than a half hour after polls closed, Gates posted of a photo of himself to social media with a caption that read, “Thank you Niagara!”
Bonnie Crombie, the leader of the Ontario Liberal party, lost her seat as MPP in the Mississauga East-Cooksville riding.
Fort Erie Radio reached out to representatives of the Gates campaign for comment but did not receive a response prior to publication.
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About The Author
Kris Dubé
Kris is a veteran journalist who has worked in Niagara for close to 20 years. He is also a lifelong resident of Fort Erie, a place he plans to call home and raise his family for many more years.
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