People wanted “steady hands” leading Ontario, says Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill’s Parsa

March 6, 2025 · 0 Comments

The people of Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill wanted “steady hands” at the helm of Ontario in the face of uncertainty from south of the border. So says Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill MPP-elect Michael Parsa as he looks forward to a third term representing Aurora’s south end at Queen’s Park.

Parsa secured 19,532 votes – or 57.21 per cent of the total vote share. Coming in second, with 11,568 votes – or 33.88 per cent of the votes – was Ontario Liberal candidate Jason Cherniak, with NDP candidate Naila Saeed coming in third with 1,907 votes, or 5.59 per cent.

Rounding out the ballot were Ikram Khan of the Green Party of Ontario with 594 votes and Rosaria Wiseman of the New Blue party slightly behind with 542 votes.

Speaking to The Auroran following his victory, Parsa said he wanted to thank both electors and everyone who put their names forward for participating in the process.

“I want to thank the people of Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill. It has been an honour of a lifetime to serve for the past seven years and I am looking forward to serving the people for four more years. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for entrusting me with your vote,” he said.

“I want to congratulate everyone who put their names forward and all political parties…. We live in the best province in the greatest country in the world where we all have the ability to be able to have these discussions and put ideas forward. In the end, the people decide and the people are never wrong. In this case, people spoke very loudly with conviction they want steady hands, they wanted a leader who is going to be sitting at that table to defend the people of this Province, and we have that leader in Doug Ford. He will be defending the interests of Ontarians every day at that table and protecting our jobs and Ontarians.”

Indeed, protecting jobs and the economy was a prevailing theme Parsa said he heard at the door, and this includes affordability on all fronts.

“Housing came up a lot but affordability was obviously top of mind for everyone, so it gave us an opportunity to be able to talk about our record, what we have been able to do, and our platform and how we’re going to protect jobs here in the Province as a team,” he said.

“We have a Team Canada approach and as much as there might be some unique issues relative to where you are in the Province or the country, affordability is top of mind and when you talk about the issues of tariffs and challenges, it affects everybody, it affects sectors. I had an individual who is in HVAC who reminded me how much these tariffs on steel [are] going to affect his business, so these are real conversations, real challenges that people are facing, and we put our ideas forward [and told] the people of this Province that this is what it is going to take for us to be able to combat some of these challenges.

“We’re talking about 450,000 jobs in various areas…. We want to be the leader in making electric cars and electric vehicles here. We have an electric vehicle battery plant being produced here in the Province of Ontario. We want to fight for those good paying jobs in the Province and we took that to the people and asked them for a strong mandate to be able to say… the President said he has a four year mandate, and so do we now. We’re going to fight for the jobs and the people of Ontario every single day.”

By Brock Weir