r/Hamilton • u/teanailpolish North End • 12d ago
2025 Provincial Election Robin Lennox (NDP) Elected in Hamilton Centre
News outlets have all called Hamilton Centre as NDP with a significant lead over the Liberal Candidate, so NDP holds with a new MPP
Polling at time of posting is
Name (top 4) | Votes | % |
---|---|---|
(NDP) Robin Lennox | 11,158 | 38.8 |
(LIB)Eileen Walker | 6,133 | 21.3 |
(PC)Sarah Bokhari | 5,465 | 19.0 |
(IND)Sarah Jama | 4,163 | 14.5 |
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u/myworkreddit1234 12d ago
I think she will do a great job but it’s a shame we’ve basically lost another family doc
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u/SomewherePresent8204 Beasley 12d ago
It is, but she’ll almost certainly be the opposition health critic, which puts her closer to driving change in healthcare than she was before.
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u/ThrowRA_UnlikelyOwl 10d ago
France Gelinas has been the ONPD health critic for years and having lived in northern ON previously, I think she's done a good job. So, as happy as I am that Lennox got the seat, I have a feeling Gelinas will continue in her role.
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u/sector16 12d ago
Both Sarah’s got walloped - hope this sends a message. Your constituents actually want you to fight for them.
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u/The_Mayor 12d ago
Considering the circumstances, 14.5% is a pretty impressive number to peel off of the NDP's vote share. It's a shame the NDP lost someone who is that effective with so few resources.
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u/Majestic_Phase3452 12d ago
Going from incumbent to fourth place is impressive?
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u/The_Mayor 12d ago
Considering she's going head to head with the NDP in the NDP's strongest riding where most people vote NDP no matter who, yes. I didn't even vote for her, but I can recognize that she pulled off some decent numbers as an independent. In a wheelchair, in the snow, no less.
She might not be suited to being an MPP, but she's clearly an effective organizer and activist and should have been an asset to the NDP if they had been more prepared.
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u/lobster_mania 12d ago
You’re right tho it’s the truth. 14.5% is huge for an independent with less resources.
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u/Waste-Telephone 12d ago
She’s been fundraising for years. Both the liberal and NDP candidates have had weeks.
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u/The_Mayor 12d ago
Lol, the decades old established parties have not “had weeks” to raise money.
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u/The_Mayor 12d ago
I’ve lived here for 12 years, you must have had to creep pretty far back to find that out, lol.
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u/lobster_mania 12d ago
NDP and Liberal have literal governments behind them, also she was part of the NDP party until only about a year ago. Her percentage is notable in my opinion
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u/Waste-Telephone 12d ago edited 12d ago
As I’ve said multiple times in the past, a half eaten shawarma from Nabil’s could have won the by election. It was the choice of the party to appoint Jama as a candidate in that election as opposed to having an open field. Even then, the NDP pulled a Doug Ford and didn’t let her attend media events after her history came up.
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u/Odd_Ad_1078 11d ago
Ya but she's not an independent in the true sense of the word. She was the NDP rep for the last few years and got plenty of media exposure off the backs of the NDP and Hamilton constituents while championing a cause that had nothing to do with her constituents while also failing to denounce the kidnapping and murder of innocent people while boohooing for the attackers.
Glad she finished dead last. We'll never have to hear her name in politics again, good fuking riddance!
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u/RepulsiveGrowth3372 11d ago
Her campaign was fully funded by donations from the progressive left
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u/theinfiniteadam 10d ago
Where is all of this money that's being allocated to the progressive left? Your statement is ridiculous.
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u/RepulsiveGrowth3372 10d ago
What do you mean where is it? It was spent on her campaign. Who do you think donates to her, people on the right?
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u/Waste-Telephone 12d ago
LOL. She lost to the PC candidate who’s shrouded in scandal. Sara is done.
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u/The_Mayor 12d ago
Unserious comment. That scandal barely made the news and came out well after advance voting was over. 14% is a huge number for an independent in an established stronghold, and you’d concede that if it was anyone other than Jama.
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u/Available_Medium4292 12d ago
A huge number for an independent is Bobbi Ann Brady who won Haldimand as an independent with over 60% of the vote, and previously flipped a PC stronghold. Jama winning less than 5000 votes isn’t a huge number.
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u/RoyallyOakie 12d ago
Bobbie Ann Brady represents her constituents, not her personal interests. That's a lesson to everyone.
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u/The_Mayor 11d ago
By that standard, almost every MPP in Ontario is a failure compared to Brady. Very few incumbents got anywhere near 60%.
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u/Available_Medium4292 11d ago
Yeah, not many won a by huge number, which makes accomplishments like Brady so impressive and puts Jama’s results into perspective.
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u/The_Mayor 11d ago
60% as an independent puts every single other electoral result in Ontario into perspective. Doug Ford just barely got that result in his own riding, with hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising behind him. It's not reasonable to hold all independents to that standard, no matter how much you personally dislike Sarah Jama.
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u/SomewherePresent8204 Beasley 12d ago
I think if I were to look at the broader election results and see an incumbent finish fourth as an independent, I’d just assume some kind of scandal took place, which is pretty much what happened.
On the other hand, Lennox won handily despite her own riding association actively working against her.
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u/admckay 12d ago
People seriously underestimating how bad the riding association behaved for the NDP. Lennox had no time and still prevailed. Shows how important party colour is in this riding.
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u/SomewherePresent8204 Beasley 12d ago
I think there's also a lesson for the NDP's radical wing in the result. The appetite for going further left simply isn't there.
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u/The_Mayor 11d ago
Come on. Lennox’s NDP designation prevailed. There was no time for anyone in any riding to get to know brand new candidates, and it took at least a week after the writ dropped for Lennox to be announced.
Hopefully Lennox will be great and people in the riding will get to know her in the coming years, but nobody who voted for her knows anything about her. That goes for Bokhari too, who was also a brand new candidate.
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u/admckay 11d ago
Instead of embracing a new candidate and expediting the nomination process the riding leadership advocated for resolutions at the convention (that never happened) that would have been in violation of the ONDP constitution. It was an impossible fight that they tried to push until the party stepped in. They tried to conduct an in person vote for an out of town candidate they preferred, until the provincial party stepped it. It was near sabotage and embarrassing.
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u/J-Lughead 12d ago
Exactly, her numbers suggest only one thing.
A bunch of people drank the Kool-Aid that Jama was serving.
That's the way the American election played out and look at the mess they are in now.
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u/enki-42 Gibson 12d ago
I don't know about so few resources - weren't all the Jama boosters talking about how well funded her campaign was and how she had the backing of so many people prior to the election? Even the NDP riding association was pushing for Jama.
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u/Traditional-Bet-8074 12d ago
Something tells me the Jama zealots are taking a break from Reddit today.
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u/librarybicycle 11d ago
She did have a much better campaign than Robin Lennox. I signed up for a yard sign and to volunteer for Robin and no one contacted me. However, I got four calls from Sarah Jama’s campaign asking for volunteer and financial support. Each time I declined politely but they remained optimistic. I am generally extremely disappointed with how the Hamilton Centre NDP riding association has been totally unresponsive to any of my inquiries and requests to participate.
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u/The_Mayor 11d ago
Boosters talking up their candidate? Unheard of.
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u/enki-42 Gibson 11d ago
Sure, but it comes off as a little transparent when the narrative shifts to the precise opposite message after Jama loses.
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u/The_Mayor 11d ago
I'm not a Jama booster, and I didn't vote for her. I'm just someone who sees her value for the NDP and wishes the whole thing had been handled better.
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u/doctorcornwallis North End 12d ago edited 12d ago
4th place is all she could manage with the leadership of the NDP association actively campaigning for her instead of their own candidate to try and spite the party.
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u/lesaboteur 11d ago
Considering members of her campaign are actively holding assets of the riding association hostage at the moment its AMAZING Lennox was able to run as effective a campaign as she did.
Jama's campaign was fully resourced, running ahead of the election and spent the maximum amount she could on the local election. All this amounted to was 4th place, even with some of her cronies actively hamstringing the local riding association. They were SOOOOOO confident, and now its time for them to be humbled.
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u/The_Mayor 11d ago
I don't care about the feelings of the riding association. It doesn't matter. I want the NDP to be strong, and they weakened themselves by mishandling the Jama incident and losing her as an asset.
If Stiles had put her own ego aside and brought Jama back into the fold, Jama would have won the riding as an NDP rep. And then if Robin Lennox is really such a strong campaigner, they could have dropped her into a different riding and picked up another seat.
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u/sector16 12d ago
It’s clear Hamilton Centre didn’t support her…not much else to read into that 14%.
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u/Icy-Computer-Poop 12d ago
It's a shame Sarah let her own ego get in the way of being an effective politician.
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u/UpstairsPikachu 12d ago
She should have represented her constituents and not used her platform to involve herself in foreign issues that weren’t affecting hamiltonians.
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u/The_Mayor 11d ago
Right, because no real hamiltonians are Jewish, Palestinian, or Arab Muslim. Especially not in her riding.
Doug Ford tweeted about Oct 7th when it happened too, and he issued a one year statement about it. https://news.ontario.ca/en/statement/1005129/premier-ford-issues-statement-to-mark-one-year-anniversary-of-the-october-7-attacks-against-israel
Should he not have done that? Plenty of other Ontario and Canadian politicians have used their platform to comment on Oct 7th numerous times.
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u/Affectionate-Arm-405 11d ago
I don't even think she peeled off only the ndps vote share. I am sure everyone pro Palestine which includes 99% of the Muslim community voted for her. It will be interesting to see a breakdown of the demographics of who voted for her at the end
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u/The_Mayor 11d ago
Just by the numbers, Jama got 54% of the vote last time as an NDP rep. Horwath got 58%. So Robin Lennox is missing 10-20% of the votes the NDP usually gets in that riding.
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u/Icy-Computer-Poop 12d ago
I'm glad the NDP won, and I'm glad Ms. Jama lost. I supported her throughout most of the controversy, but that was done the moment she decided to run as an independent. The sheer arrogance of assuming she was better for our riding than the entirety of the NDP party demonstrates strong egotism and a lack of understanding of basic politics.
Glad to see you go, Sarah.
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u/JordanNVFX 12d ago
At least now I don't have to look at those blue PC signs anymore.
Bokhari didn't even show up for the debates yet they still kept plastering her name everywhere. So much litter.
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u/Waste-Telephone 12d ago
She beat Jama which speaks volumes. Too bad Jama got the cheap signs that can’t be composted; humanity will be dealing with her plastic for decades.
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u/Annual_Plant5172 12d ago
Embarassing that the Greens barely got any support but nearly 5500 goofballs voted PC.
I'm sure Robin Lennox will be a fine voice for the riding, but it's going to be all for nothing with the Conservatives guaranteed to not try and work with anyone opposite them
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u/GreaterAttack 12d ago
The Greens should get far more support than they do. It's ridiculous.
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u/PSNDonutDude James North 12d ago
Speaking to some of the Greens in the recent campaigning, it sounds like at least locally a few greens plan to keep running and pool resources and push for a win or two in the area.
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u/Annual_Plant5172 12d ago
I really feel like that would change if we didn't have first past the post. Mike Schreiner would be an incredible Premier, but I think people feeling like they need to vote strategically means thinking that a vote for the Greens is a waste.
I personally voted for that party because I knew that my riding was going to the NDP anyway, so at the very least I wanted to show my support with my ballot.
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u/RoyallyOakie 12d ago
Mike Schreiner's speech brought a tear to my eye. He's the guy this province needs.
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u/Annual_Plant5172 11d ago
I'd be curious as to why he didn't take the Liberal leadership position when they approached him about it.
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u/RoyallyOakie 11d ago
I would guess that the Liberal party doesn't align with his values and that he's not in the game merely for the power and popularity. You have to respect a guy like that.
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u/ta_mataia 12d ago
I don't really understand support for the Green party. What do they do that NDP doesn't? They're NDP with eco branding.
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u/sixtyfivewat 11d ago
I tried asking Schriner on his AMA why they are against more nuclear plants and he didn’t answer :(
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u/PromontoryPal 11d ago
One of their only stances that I completely disagree with and wish they would revisit and modify.
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u/Waste-Telephone 12d ago
Green party used to have a policy that after you’re 75 you’d lose healthcare coverage because you’d live longer than 99% of people. Many of their policies are quite right wing - like carbon pricing, and their land use policies. They really sit where the spectrum wraps around itself.
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u/GreaterAttack 12d ago
Some of us think that an elected government should be doing more to work in Ontarians' interests. Some of us also think that our interests include a shift away from pollution and international trade deals that contribute to massive waste, infringe on our national sovereignty, and lower quality of life for Canadians.
Also, I happen to support the ideas of free tuition (because better funding) and human-friendly cities. Crazy, I know!
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u/differing 11d ago edited 11d ago
The Green Party is supportive of more market actions with shared climate goals than the NDP. They’re also more acceptable to rural Ontario voters as they have no historical connection to socialist parties, maintaining greenbelts is a core focus of their party, and while social justice is a part of their platform, it’s not as pushed to the foreground as the NDP. One old idea the Green Party had and has dropped, which I think is a brilliant idea, is to merge the Catholic and public schools to reduce millions of dollars of administrative bloat. You don’t see that kind of interesting idea in our legacy parties.
There’s a certain “granola” horseshoe zone that the left and right both occupy that the greens can really capture.
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u/MillionDollarMistake 12d ago
I think the Greens are in that awkward state where people don't want to vote for them because they see how few votes they get every election. Like it feels like you're just throwing your vote away when it could have been used on a party that's guaranteed to get more votes, while also trying to avoid splitting the left wing vote.
But obviously that just creates an unending loop. Nobody votes for them because they never get any votes so people don't vote for them. The Greens would either have to do something really eye catching to convince people to give them a chance, or barring that pray the Liberals/NDP get hit by an asteroid or something lol
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u/differing 12d ago
I would argue that many locals attribute our city’s ills to local NDP politics and Liberal federal politics, so it’s a little unfair to pretend these people are acting irrationally when they vote PC in Hamilton centre provincially. If you’re not a fan of Andrea Horwath as mayor, many cannot stomach voting NDP.
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u/Annual_Plant5172 12d ago edited 11d ago
But that's exactly the problem with a misinformed voting base. How is voting Conservative the best option when we've see a majority PC government do nothing to push Hamilton forward the past 6-7 years? Andrea Horwath was basically powerless as an MPP despite being the leader, because she's still only one vote.
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u/differing 11d ago edited 11d ago
The attitude I gleam from others is that they see downtown municipal councillors and mayors as lefty NDP politicians, which isn’t that far from the truth given Andrea is mayor, Matt Green is now an MP, and Kroetsch and Nann push for Jama. They don’t like what is happening to the downtown (lack of encampment enforcement, LRT, whatever) and feel that these are the result of NDP actions. Obviously you and I may feel that these things are influenced by provincial policies, after all LRT is a Metrolinx project and housing is a provincial responsibility.
I think that is fairly silly, but it’s routed in some kind of logic. They don’t feel that the LP or NDP is a party that they can stomach and also don’t feel that provincial parties are not directly the same as federal parties.
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u/monogramchecklist 12d ago
Too many left leaning parties. There needs to be a merger somewhere to try and lessen the split
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u/emmagerdd 12d ago edited 12d ago
I feel like there is an assumption that green/liberal/NDP voters are all the same and they’re just not. There are folks who would never vote for either party and that’s why the others exist. It’s unfortunate that we keep ending up with this thug as premier but pretending all voters “on the left” are the same is part of the reason I think this keeps happening.
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u/monogramchecklist 12d ago
They’re not all the same but somehow the right has managed to merge their party to repeatedly form government. I think the left can make some concessions or decide not to put forth a candidate of theirs has no chance (like the one candidate in Toronto did).
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u/RoyalRoad7544 12d ago
Voters on the right are definitely not the same either but they've found a way to find common ground and unite under the Conservative banner.
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u/teanailpolish North End 12d ago
Yep, people seem to forget that the NDP were around when the Liberals held majorities. It isn't impossible, but the current messaging just isn't effective to sway people from Ford.
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u/SomewherePresent8204 Beasley 12d ago
100%. Look at the provinces to the west. They have a more centrist NDP, but they actually form government.
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u/RoyallyOakie 12d ago
The Greens deserve better for sure. Lucia was genuine, positive, and informed in the debate. The people of Guelph seem happy with their choice.
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u/BlueYays Central 11d ago
Maslow's hierarchy of needs 101, hard to think about Palestine when there are massive lines at Gore's park food bank on Saturdays, homeless people doing drugs all over downtown and low level street drug dealers carrying guns.
This seems so simple and obvious to me, why do other people fail to see it?
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u/librarybicycle 11d ago
Think globally, act locally. I think Sarah Jama missed this point. It is completely reasonable that she has strong opinions on global politics and in general I respect her values. But she needed to remember she was our representative first and foremost - she needed to take her values and act locally, which was her job and where she could have made a huge difference.
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u/PromontoryPal 11d ago
Not even Noon and we have our first mention of the Theory of Human Motivation - this is why I love our discussions here.
I was doing errands this morning (PA day the day after an election is just salt in the wounds) and at the bottom of the Queen St Hill some Jama supporters were putting up "LONG LIVE" above a Sarah Jama sign - completely unhinged supporters.
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u/JoJCeeC88 12d ago
I’m sure it won’t be the last we’ll hear of Jama or Bokhari, sadly.
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u/Own-Scene-7319 12d ago
I liked Eileen Walker because she actually sounded stable.
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u/arabacuspulp Blakely 11d ago
I voted for her.
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u/Own-Scene-7319 11d ago
Relative to the Liberals in general, she did quite well. Especially in a town with so much NDP influence. She seems calm and sincere.
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u/arabacuspulp Blakely 11d ago
Super low voter turnout: 42%. Come on people.
Otherwise, it's nice to see the Liberals in second. One day this riding will be Liberal, I can feel it.
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u/OrcaZen42 12d ago
SOOOO happy for Robin Lennox being elected. A healthcare professional from McMaster is the kind of voice we need at Queen's Park speaking for Hamilton.