Belinda Stronach, who defected from the Conservative Party to join the Liberals last spring, hung on to her riding yesterday with a decisive victory in Newmarket-Aurora, north of Toronto.
With 100 per cent of polls counted, Ms. Stronach had 46.2 per cent of the vote, Conservative candidate Lois Brown had 38 per cent and Ed Chudak, the 53-year-old New Democrat candidate, had 9.6 per cent.
Ms. Stronach hugged Frank Stronach, her business tycoon father and founder of Magna International Inc., and promised a crowd of jubilant supporters that she would continue to be a vocal critic of Conservative Leader Stephen Harper -- especially if he "places in jeopardy the equal rights of Canadians or of women, or unity of the country.
"The strong economy we've come to take for granted we cannot put at risk. Mr. Harper has made many promises. We still don't know how he'll pay for them," she said to cheering crowds gathered at a local banquet hall for a victory party.
"So much of what defines Mr. Harper are issues that have already been debated extensively in the past and the country has already moved on to the next challenge. The right to same-sex marriage and throwing away the Kyoto accord come to mind."
Ms. Stronach's name recognition and star quality won over voters, even as the party she joined went down to defeat.
With a Conservative minority government, Ms. Stronach must now look on from the opposition benches as her former Tory colleagues -- including Peter MacKay, her former boyfriend and Mr. Harper's deputy -- take office.
But she insisted yesterday she has no regrets about her decision.
Her Conservative rival in Newmarket-Aurora, a 51-year-old consultant and former music teacher, attracted volunteers from across the country keen to see Ms. Stronach defeated in a "bring Belinda down" campaign.
"This riding elected a Conservative to help clean up the mess in Ottawa and they ended up with a Liberal who became part of the problem," Ms. Brown said last night.
But in the end, Ms. Stronach held sway over a riding that was traditionally a Liberal stronghold until her own Conservative victory in 2004.
Ms. Stronach took the biggest political gamble of her short political career when she crossed the floor on May 17, 2005, and accepted a cabinet post as Human Resources Development Minister in the flailing Liberal minority government. She was in the job for just nine months before the Liberals were defeated yesterday.
The move was seen by Tories as an act of betrayal and crass opportunism. Stephen Somerville, the president of Ms. Stronach's riding association, said at the time: "The stunning hypocrisy of her actions is breathtaking to behold."
But Ms. Stronach said her more moderate views on social issues including same-sex marriage were at odds with those of Mr. Harper, against whom she ran in the 2004 leadership campaign.