NDP's Catherine Fife 'energized' by 5th win in Waterloo

NDP candidate Catherine Fife says she feels "energized" after she won a fifth term.

"I'm feel very energized by the support of Waterloo," Fife told CBC News in an interview from her campaign party.

"I will tell you, I was quite worried this election was hellish," Fife said.

"It feels validating for the work that we've been able to do in the riding by bringing the peoples' voice from Waterloo to Queen's Park and I'm looking forward to continuing on with that work."

Currently the longest-serving MPP in the region, Fife won the seat in a Sept. 2012 byelection and has held it ever since.

With 59 out of 61 polls reporting: 

• Fife had 24,667 votes. 
• Progressive Conservative's Peter Turkington had 13,566 votes. 
• Liberal Clayton Moore had 7,695 votes. 
• Green's Shefaza Esmail had 1,777 votes. 
• Suja Biber of the New Blue Party had 535 votes. 
• Chris Martin of the Ontario Party had 470 votes. 
• Libertarian James Schulz had 276 votes.
• Peter House of the Electoral Reform Party had 161 votes. 

Fife even earned the support of a fellow candidate. Earlier this week, Green candidate Shefaza Esmail said to avoid splitting the vote, people should vote for Fife in the election.

Fife said she was taking the evening to celebrate, but she plans to be back to work Friday morning.

"Obviously there's so much going on right now from a geopolitical sense. I hope that the premier of Ontario calls us back to the Legislature so that we can design a plan to tariff-proof Ontario," Fife said.

"And then I'd also to like get down to the hard work on health care, education and housing. Because what I learned through this election is that there's a lot of people hurting in Waterloo and across Ontario."

Riding history

The Waterloo riding, as it exists in this election, was formed in 2018. It was created from the riding of Kitchener-Waterloo, which existed from 1999 to 2018. Before 1999, the riding was known as Waterloo North and was established in 1867.

The first Member of Provincial Parliament in Waterloo North was Liberal Moses Springer.

In the last 50 years, Liberal Edward Good held the seat from 1967 to 1977. He was followed by Liberal Herb Epp, who held the seat from 1977 until he retired in 1990.

In 1990, Progressive Conservative Elizabeth Witmer won the seat and held it until 2012, when she stepped down from politics. 

Fife won the Sept. 2012 byelection to replace Witmer.