Liberals roll in St. Paul's

[attach]5065[/attach]Liberal Eric Hoskins will be heading back to Queen’s Park, but this time with a new job description.

The St. Paul’s MPP secured 25,048 votes in the Oct. 6 provincial election that saw the lowest voter turnout in Ontario’s history. He defeated challengers Christine McGirr of the Progressive Conservatives, who had 8,972 votes, and David Hynes of the NDP, who had 7,124.

“I was pleasantly surprised to see the result,” said Hoskins. “It’s great to get a strong mandate from the residents of St. Paul’s like this.”

Hoskins first won his seat in a 2009 byelection and was named Minister of Citizenship and Immigration soon there after. Recently, on Oct. 20, the former president of War Child Canada was assigned the portfolio for the Ministry of Child and Youth Services.

“Whether it’s fighting poverty, providing youth with opportunity, or ensuring that children live in a safe and nurturing environment — all of these important goals have been a major part of my life’s work,” Hoskins said. “I look forward to serving the premier and the people of Ontario in this important role.”

Part of the reason Hoskins believes the Liberal’s were re-elected, albeit as a minority government, was their record on education over the past eight years.

“I’m very proud of the progress that the Liberal Party has made in full-day education,” he said. “In the next couple of years it’ll be fully implemented in every public school in St. Paul’s.”

The topic of transit is also something Hoskins plans to be bringing up regularly at Queen’s Park.

“A big opportunity, but it will have it’s challenges, is the Eglinton-Scarborough Light Rail Transit which will be built over the course of the next eight or nine years,” said Hoskins. “It runs across the top of the riding so I’ll be very involved in that with the community to make sure that it progresses in the way that the community and the riding want to see it progress.”

Not only is Hoskins willing to work with the community, he is also open to working with the opposition.

“I am the kind of guy that works hard to collaborate and build consensus and work with others to achieve common objectives so I don’t think this government will be any different,” he said. “There’s an expectation by the people of Ontario that all parties, all politicians, we work together to build on that progress and continue to make priorities of things like jobs, education, health care and the environment and to find ways to work collaboratively to see further progress made.”