Niagara Centre, Niagara Falls, and St. Catharines re-elected NDP incumbents. Pictured: Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff. Photo Credit: Sam Oosterhoff/X.
In last week’s provincial election, all four of Niagara Region’s MPPs were re-elected. That means Niagara Centre, Niagara Falls, and St. Catharines will once again be represented by MPPs on the opposition benches as members of the official Opposition NDP, while Niagara West’s Sam Oosterhoff will be the lone government MPP representing Niagara Region.
The odds that Oosterhoff will remain in Cabinet are virtually guaranteed. Oosterhoff has been very active as an MPP and as a minister since becoming the Associate Minister of Energy and Electrification in June 2024.
All of Oosterhoff’s Cabinet colleagues who ran were also re-elected, meaning Premier Doug Ford could choose to simply maintain his cabinet as-is. However, it is most often the case that a premier with a new mandate chooses to shuffle his roster of ministers and give some new portfolios.
That means Oosterhoff could be on the move to a new role, perhaps receiving a promotion from an associate role to a full ministerial role.
Oosterhoff has served as an associate minister to Minister of Energy and Electrification Stephen Lecce since taking on the role last June.
Even though all of Ford’s Cabinet ministers were re-elected on Feb. 27, there are some new PC MPPs and some non-Cabinet ministers were also defeated. The PCs lost the ridings of Ajax, Don Valley North, Etobicoke-Lakeshore, and Nepean to the Liberals. Meanwhile, they also gained Algoma-Manitoulan and Hamilton Mountain from the NDP.
The Ontario Liberals, after seven straight years of failing to achieve official party status, picked up enough seats to be acknowledged as an official party (one with more than 12 seats) in the Ontario Legislature.
The final seat count following last Thursday’s election is 80 Progressive Conservatives, 27 New Democrats, 14 Liberals, and 2 Greens. The PCs won approximately 43 per cent of the popular vote. The Liberals came in second with 30 per cent, the NDP third with 18.5 per cent and the Greens fourth with 4.8 per cent.
One day after his re-election, Oosterhoff sent a letter to Ford outlining his priorities for the next term, which include protecting Ontario workers and jobs from President Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs; building more infrastructure through expanding the QEW, delivering a new West Lincoln Memorial Hospital, and a Grimsby GO Station; lowering costs through making the gas tax cut permanent and cutting red tape; investing in the skilled trades; and improving health care access through training more doctors, opening new medial schools, providing tuition support for those willing to serve underserved areas, and investing in mental health and addictions.
Jeff Burch will remain the NDP MPP for Niagara Centre, while the NDP’s Wayne Gates was re-elected in Niagara Falls and Jennie Stevens won another term in St. Catharines.
Jay Goldberg is the Ontario Director at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. He previously served as a policy fellow at the Munk School of Public Policy and Global Affairs. Jay holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Toronto.
