'Feeling great,' Ted Arnott re-elected in Wellington-Halton Hills

Long-servingProgressive Conservative Ted Arnott has heldthe ridingof Wellington-Halton Hills.

"I'm feeling great tonight," Arnott said from a campaign celebration at theFergus Curling Club Thursday night.

Arnott, who was first elected in 1990, said he'd be right back at his desk Friday morning.

"I'll be in my riding office tomorrow morning and we'll be working on a letter that we'll send to the premier-designate and advance some of the issuesthat I heard about during the election campaign, as well as issues that we've been working on, in some cases for many months and years, that haven't yet been fully addressed," he said.

"Then I'm going to be going to Queen's Park in the afternoon to get caught up down there."

Arnott, who served as Speaker in the legislature for the last four years, did not say if he would seek the position again.

"I felt enormously privileged to serve as Speaker the last four years," he said.

"I think it's premature to anticipate what might happen in the next few weeks. But I do think that the house probably should be called back soon to deal with some of the issues that that we've heard about during the course of the election campaign, and to take some immediate steps to respond to the needs."

With all polls reporting, Arnott had a lead of more than 17,000 votes ahead ofthe NDP's Diane Ballantyne.

Vote share for all candidates in Wellington-Halton Hills:

• Ted Arnott, PC 51 per cent
• Diane Ballantyne, NDP 16 per cent
• Ryan Kahro, Green 14 per cent
• Tom Takacs, Liberal 14 per cent
• Stephen Kitras, New Blue 5 per cent
• Ron Patava,Consensus 0.5 per cent

Elections Ontario reported 48 per cent of eligible voters in this riding cast a ballot, down from 61 per cent in 2018.

Arnott was first elected in the riding of Wellington when he was 27 years old.The riding boundaries were redrawn and Arnottbecame MPP of Waterloo-Wellington from 1999 to 2007, when the riding boundaries again changed and Arnott became the representative for Wellington-Halton Hills.

He is one of the longest-serving MPPs in Ontario's history and during his last term, starting on July 11, 2018, served as the province's 42nd Speaker.

Read more of CBCK-W's coverage of Wellington-Halton Hills: