Hajdu re-elected in Thunder Bay-Superior North

Thunder Bay-Superior North will be represented by a familiar face, as Patty Hajdu was re-elected in Monday's election.

Hajdu won the riding by 4,777 votes as of 1:15 a.m. on Tuesday, having received a total of 15,310 votes.

Hajdu won the 2019 election by a margin of about 7,000 votes.

The win means Hajdu will represent the riding for a third term. She was appointed as the health minister after the 2019 election. Prior to 2019, Hajdu was the minister of status of women and minister of employment, workforce development and labour.

"It's wonderful to feel the support of the regionand the city. To be the Member of Parliament for Thunder Bay - Superior North is always an honour, but third time's a charm," Hajdu said at her campaign party.

"It's been a really difficult last couple of years. My entire attention was focused on the pandemic as the Minister of Health."

Hajdu said while campaigning, she heard about concerns of accessing health care, particularly in smaller communities. She said this would be a priority for her, along with improvingaccess to mental health servicesand promoting economic development.

But there was one issue on the campaign trail that really stood out to Hajdu, one which has been gathering more attention in recent years.

"I wouldn't say at the beginning of my career as a member of Parliament, that I was, in any way, really an expert in terms of what we need to do for the climate, and the environmental issues that people had championed," Hajdu told CBC News. "I was really focused on social justice issues, as you know, and I felt kind of comfortable that other people were being environmentalists.

"But, this is really the crisis of our lifetime, and I think focusing in on climate change here in northwestern Ontario, looking at what we can do to amplify the work that we all have to do to protect our climate," Hajdu said.

Hajdu was challenged by Conservative candidate Joshua Taylor, NDP candidate Chantelle Bryson, Green Party candidate Amanda Moddejonge, People's Party candidate Rick Daines and the Libertarian Party's Alexander Vodden.

The NDP's Bryson was in second place for most of the night, garnering about 10,500 votes. The split between the NDP and Liberals was close to 1,000 for about two hours after the polls closed.

With 216 of217 polls reporting, here are the vote tallies:

• Patty Hajdu, Liberal, 15,817 votes
• Chantelle Bryson, NDP, 10,750 votes
• Joshua Taylor, Conservative, 9,629 votes
• Rick Daines, People's Party, 2,363 votes
• Amanda Moddejong, 695 votes
• Alexander Vodden, Libertarian Party, 107 votes