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Another east-end Liberal sweep in federal election

East-end voters may have a sense of déja vu as they wake up to the 2021 federal election results this morning.

The Liberal victors of the 2019 election in Toronto-Danforth and Beaches-East York have won their ridings again — and by almost the same margins.

Based on what Elections Canada is still calling “preliminary results,” Julie Dabrusin has been re-elected in the riding that takes in Riverdale and the western parts of East York and Leslieville with 48.3 per cent of the vote, slightly up from 47.7 per cent in the previous election.

Her closest challenger was the NDP’s Clare Hacksel with about 33 per cent of the vote, almost identical to the party’s tally last time.

Meanwhile, in the riding taking in the Beaches and the eastern ends of Leslieville and East York, Nathaniel Erskine-Smith has been returned to office with 56.1 per cent of the vote so far, just slightly down from his record-setting 57.2 per cent in 2019.

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Behind Erskine-Smith, NDP candidate Alejandra Ruiz Vargas was a distant second with less than 23 per cent of the vote, up a bit from the party’s 21 per cent showing last time.

The third-place candidate in Beaches-East York, Lisa Robinson, was disowned by the Conservative Party four days before the election for alleged Islamophobic tweets. Robinson claimed the tweets were faked and she continued to run as a Tory, managing to pull in a slightly higher percentage of the votes than the Conservative candidate in 2019.

The results for east-end ridings as of 6 a.m. this morning:

Toronto-Danforth

  • Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, 22,961 votes, 48.3%
  • Clare Hacksel, NDP, 15,819 votes, 33.3%
  • Michael Carey, Conservative, 6,096votes, 12.8%
  • Wayne Simmons, People’s Party, 1,238 votes, 2.6%
  • Maryem Tollar, Green Party, 946 votes, 2.0 %
  • Elizabeth Rowley, Communist, 204, 0.4%
  • Liz White, Animal Protection Party, 178 votes, 0.4%
  • Habiba Desai, Independent, 125 votes, 0.3%

Beaches-East York

  • Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, 26,654 votes, 56.1%
  • Alejandra Ruiz Vargas, NDP-New Democratic Party, 10,673 votes, 22.5%
  • Lisa Robinson, Conservative, 6,987 votes,  14.7 %
  • Radu Rautescu, PPC, 1,561 votes, 3.3 %
  • Reuben Anthony DeBoer, Green Party, 1,312 votes, 2.8%
  • Jennifer Moxon, Communist, 125 votes, 0.3%
  • Karen Lee Wilde, Independent, 159 votes, 0.3%
  • Philip Fernandez, Marxist-Leninist, 49 votes, 0.1%

Erskine-Smith thanked his supporters on social media this morning.

“Thanks to everyone who voted, volunteered and contributed to our local campaign,” he said on Twitter and Instagram. “I’m looking forward to getting back to work!”

It was his third victory in a row since taking the riding from the NDP in 2015 and his second majority win, receiving more votes than all his opponents put together.

The Liberal wins in the east end were part of a wider red sweep across Toronto and most of the GTA.