OTTAWA — The federal riding of Milton East–Halton Hills South in Ontario has shifted from the Conservatives to the Liberals following Elections Canada’s vote validation process.
According to the validated results, Liberal candidate Kristina Tesser Derksen secured 32,130 votes, narrowly defeating Conservative candidate Parm Gill, who received 32,101 votes — a margin of just 29 votes.
This shift brings the Liberals’ seat count back up to 169, while the Conservatives now hold 143 seats.
The riding of Milton East–Halton Hills South was newly formed through electoral redistribution. It comprises parts of the former Milton riding, previously held by the Liberals, and Wellington–Halton Hills, a Conservative stronghold.
Initially, preliminary results had shown Gill in the lead with 32,186 votes, while Tesser Derksen had 31,888 votes, a lead of 298 votes. However, the validation process revealed 412 rejected ballots and corrected earlier tally discrepancies.
Elections Canada spokesperson Matthew McKenna explained that the validation process involves a thorough review by a returning officer, who checks for any errors in vote counting or data entry. He noted that an automatic recount is triggered if the margin between the top two candidates is less than one one-thousandth of the total votes cast.
Just a day earlier, a similar process in Quebec’s Terrebonne riding resulted in a Liberal win being overturned in favor of the Bloc Québécois.
This article was originally published by The Canadian Press on May 2, 2025.
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