The Ontario Progressive Conservatives won their second straight majority government on Thursday. .The Ontario NDP will remain the official opposition. While the Ontario NDP’s seat count dropped to 31 seats, a number of the party’s far-left candidates won their seats. .These candidates demonstrate how the party has shifted from one about organized labour to a place for social-justice oriented people. Here are five of the most far-left NDP candidates that ended up winning their seats. .5- Jessica Bell (University-Rosedale) .NDP MPP Jessica Bell was re-elected in University-Rosedale by 4,036 votes. .Bell was arrested and charged for trespassing after participating in an environmental protest in Seattle in 2004. The charge ended up being withdrawn. .Bell said she was arrested a second time for another environmental protest in Seattle. She said she was released in 20 minutes. .4- Lise Vaugeois (Thunder Bay-Superior North) .NDP candidate Lise Vaugeois flipped Thunder Bay-Superior North orange by 800 votes. .Vaugeois said on a podcast in 2019 that national anthems serve as social engineering and equated them to brainwashing. .“You’re trying to generate a core population that is unquestionably loyal to projects of the state,” she said..3- Kristyn Wong-Tam (Toronto Centre) .NDP candidate Kristyn Wong-Tam won her race in Toronto Centre by 2,461 votes. .Wong-Tam co-sponsored a motion to defund Toronto police by 10% when she was a Toronto city councillor in 2020. .“Our motion will set up the necessary steps to achieve greater accountability and transparency,” she said. .“This is how we will defund the police budget by 10% + reallocate the money to support communities and people.”.2- Laura Mae Lindo (Kitchener Centre) .NDP MPP Laura Mae Lindo was re-elected in Kitchener Centre by 5,411 votes. .Lindo introduced Bill 67 in December, which would enshrine critical race theory into the Ontario education system. .Bill 67 would mandate “anti-racism and racial equity requirements that apply to every college of applied arts and technology and every university that receives ongoing operating funds from the government.” This bill would allow people who disrupt classes through racist language to be “liable to a fine of not more than $200.”.1- Jill Andrew (Toronto-St. Paul’s) .NDP MPP Jill Andrew was re-elected in Toronto-St. Paul’s by 1,092 votes. .Andrew introduced a motion to combat hair racism by mandating training for racialized people’s natural and textured hair within Ontario’s Hairstyling Program Standard in March. ."Hairstyling training in Ontario currently only focusses on cutting, designing, permanent waving, chemically relaxing, straightening and colouring hair, but does not have any instruction or practice to ensure every hairstylist can service Black people's natural hair or the textured hair of many Indigenous and/or racialized community members, whether performers or otherwise,” she said.
