Badawey hangs on to take Niagara Centre seat

Niagara Centre’s Liberal incumbent Vance Badawey held on to win his riding last night during the federal election.

Of the four Niagara Region ridings, only Badawey’s was up in the air late into the evening as for most of the evening, he and Conservative challenger Graham Speck were only separated by a few hundred votes.

In the end, with 221 of 222 polls reporting in the riding that consists of Port Colborne, Thorold and Welland, Badawey took 19,525 votes (34.5 per cent) to Speck’s 17,742 (31.4 per cent), leaving Niagara’s ridings looking precisely the way they did the day before.

Liberal Chris Bittle handily won the St Catharines riding while Conservatives Tony Baldinelli and Dean Allison easily maintained their Niagara Falls and Niagara West seats.