Orazietti wins again (updated, 4 photos)

"It's an honour and a privilege and I'm humbled to have the opportunity to continue to serve as the city's provincial member of parliament," Liberal David Orazietti told SooToday.com, after he was re-elected as Sault Ste. Marie MPP in the Ontario provincial election held Thursday.

Premier Kathleen Wynne's Liberals were re-elected, this time with a majority government, defeating Tim Hudak's Progressive Conservatives and Andrea Horwath's NDP.

Locally, according to Elections Ontario numbers available Thursday night, Orazietti raked in 58.5 percent of the vote, with a total of 17,490 votes with all 168 of the riding's polls reporting.

NDP challenger Celia Ross pulled in 7,611 votes for a 25.5 percent share of the riding, while PC candidate Rod Fremlin came in third with 3,703 votes and 12.4 percent of the vote.

Green candidate Kara Flannigan grabbed three percent of the vote with 965 votes and Austin Williams, of the Libertarian Party, pulled in .4 percent of the vote with 115 votes.

"We've made huge investments in this community year after year and I think many Sault residents recognized that, and I want to thank them for that, and I really appreciate the opportunity to continue to serve," Orazietti said.

Orazietti was first elected Liberal MPP for the Sault when the Liberals came to power in Ontario in 2003, and was re-elected in 2007 and 2011.

Orazietti, who was appointed Minister of Natural Resources in 2013, added many local voters he spoke to in this campaign thought the NDP plunged Ontario into a costly and unnecessary election campaign.

Wynne pulled the plug on her own minority government when Andrea Horwath announced her NDP would not support the Liberal 2014 budget.

As national media numbers came in showing the Liberals on their way to re-election province-wide, Orazietti said getting the Liberal government's budget passed will be the first order of business.

"I'm ready to get back to work at Queen's Park," Orazietti said.

This was the second attempt by Ross to unseat Orazietti, having ran against the Liberal MPP in 2011.

"I have a very, very good feeling about this campaign…I can't explain the result, but we had a superb team," Ross told her supporters before heading to Orazietti's office to concede.

"We had terrific support from the unions, wonderful support after knocking on doors, we had positive support from the media…we should have won, however we did not win, which simply means we have to keep on working."

"We had a platform that I was very proud to represent…affordability, accountability and jobs," Ross said.

Ross told supporters the local NDP riding association must work hard to get a New Democrat elected in the 2015 federal election.   

Ross, an Algoma University professor of French literature (and former Algoma University president), told reporters later outside Orazietti's campaign headquarters "I will work for the betterment of the community and certainly with the NDP we will continue to meet as a riding association, we hope to have workshops and involve the community in what we're doing, and prepare for the next election."

Ross wished Orazietti well in dealing with issues pertaining to Sault Ste. Marie.

Progressive Conservative candidate Rod Fremlin said he enjoyed his first attempt at running for public office.

He told SooToday.com he hoped for a quicker start if or when he runs again. 

Fremlin often spoke out in his own way in thiså campaign, not always quoting the party line. 

Fremlin told us he felt one thing PC leader Tim Hudak should have done was to make it clearer as to which 100,000 civil servants, and where, would have lost their jobs had he been elected premier (one of Hudak's more controversial campaign pledges).

However, Fremlin said he agreed that some "unproductive" civil service workers should have been cut had Hudak formed a government, adding that the government needs to "cut the waste."

According to Elections Ontario numbers available tonight, Orazietti raked in 58.5 percent of the vote, with a total of 17,490 votes with all 168 of the riding's polls reporting.

NDP challenger Celia Ross pulled in 7,611 votes for a 25.5 percent share of the riding, while PC candidate Rod Fremlin came in third with 3,703 votes and 12.4 percent of the vote.

Green candidate Kara Flannigan grabbed three percent of the vote with 965 votes and Austin Williams, of the Libertarian Party, pulled in .4 percent of the vote with 115 votes.

If you missed our live coverage, you can still look back at our LIVE Election Results Page where we provided comprehensive coverage of the Sault Riding for the 2014 provincial election.

LIVE ELECTION COVERAGE PAGE - CLICK HERE

(PHOTO: David Orazietti poses with family and campaign team members following his election win tonight. SooToday.com/Darren Taylor)