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Huron-Bruce: Ben Lobb cruises to fourth straight win

In a riding that changes MPs about as infrequently as homeowners replace their roofs, you don't expect election-night surprises — and Huron-Bruce kept that lid in place Monday.

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In a riding that changes MPs about as infrequently as homeowners replace their roofs, you don’t expect election-night surprises — and Huron-Bruce kept that lid in place Oct. 21.

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The largest riding in the London region, one slightly larger than Prince Edward Island, stayed with Conservative Ben Lobb who faced the same Liberal challenger, former journalist Allan Thompson, for a second straight general election.

Lobb was the projected winner early in the night, taking more than half the popular vote with only one-fifth of the polls reporting.

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“It’s a great result here tonight and we are happy and we want to thank everybody who has worked so hard putting together a good effort,” he told supporters gathered at the Goderich Sunset Golf Club.

Acknowledging things will be different in Ottawa under a minority government, Lobb said Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer “did the best he could with his national campaign” and that riding concerns will remain top priorities as he returns to office.

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“In the next four years, rural health care, infrastructure, trade, agriculture – those are in our wheelhouse in Huron-Bruce. We have to continue to push on that. Every little community has needs.”

The victory means Lobb, an auctioneer’s son, returns to Ottawa as one of the London region’s ranking MPs, with four straight election wins under his belt since 2008.

Overwhelmingly rural, its largest centre the town of Goderich, and small-c conservative, Huron-Bruce has had only two MPs since 1993, when Liberal Paul Steckle was elected in Jean Chretien’s sweep of the region and began a 15-year run in office.

Lobb had won the seat previously with as much as 55 per cent of the popular vote,

Rural issues, including the fallout for Canadian producers from global farm commodity trade wars, such as those between China and the United States, loom large in the riding that is a major livestock and cash crop belt.

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But with its vast Lake Huron shoreline a magnet for tourism and cottagers, and its economy also powered by the giant Bruce Nuclear complex, the world’s largest operating nuclear plant, more urban issues – including lack of enough affordable housing, and the need to attract newcomers to fill jobs – have grown in profile in recent years in the far-flung riding.

That pressure is only expected to grow, with the nuclear power plant slated for a $13-billion overhaul, a rebuild that’s one of the largest infrastructure projects on the books in Canada and which is expected to intensify demand for housing and other services needed over the project’s 10-year run.

Privately-operated, the massive plant along the shore of Lake Huron produces one-third of Ontario’s power.

– With files by Kathleen Smith, Postmedia News


THE RESULTS

(259 of 259 polls reporting)

Kevin M. Klerks, PP: 1,115

*Ben Lobb, CON: 29,743

Tony McQuail, NDP: 7,389

Allan Thompson, LIB: 20,333

Nicholas Wendler, GRN: 2,701

*MP in last Parliament

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