Jeff Lehman vows he's 'not done yet' after nail-biting loss

Liberal candidate Jeff Lehman vows to keep fighting for "a better future" after his nail-biting loss to PC incumbent Doug Downey in Thursday night's election.

The race in Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte between the long-time Barrie mayor and Ontario's attorney general was the closest in the province and came down to just 609 votes, a margin of 1.5 per cent.

"It hurts, because in politics winner takes all. That's the game. That's the way it goes," Lehman said.

Throughout the night, votes for Lehman and Downey were neck and neck, but ultimately the PC incumbent squeaked in the win with 42.5 per cent of the vote compared to Lehman's 40.8 per cent.

"To come so close and fall short is heartbreaking," Lehman said during his speech Thursday night.

"But I'm going to tell you this right now I'm not done," he declared to a room full of cheering.

Lehman reflected on his choice to run for Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte against Downey versus Barrie-Innisfil, where incumbent PC Andrea Khanjin took the win.

"We knew we picked the tougher riding here," he noted. "I'm sure we're going to think about that decision right now, but we did that all for good reasons: I wanted to represent RVH, and the college and the old ward I used to represent, and we wanted the challenge, and it turned out the challenge was just a little too much."

Lehman, who has served three terms as Barrie's mayor, didn't specify his next move but said he wouldn't rule out another run in provincial or federal politics.

"I don't know tonight what the future holds, but I'm not done because there are so many important fights to fight, and we fought a lot of them on this campaign," he said.

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The Liberal Party failed to secure official party status for a second time, resulting in Steven Del Duca's resignation. The Liberal Leader also lost in his riding of Vaughan-Woodbridge for a second straight election.

"There will come another day. For tonight, this hurts, but be proud, be so proud of how close we came amid such a difficult night for the party," Lehman concluded.