Saini unseats Woodworth in bellwether of Kitchener Centre

Raj Saini is seen in this undated file photo.

Canada’s ultimate bellwether has rung true once again.

As the Liberal Party unseated the Conservatives across Canada, Raj Saini did the same to incumbent Stephen Woodworth in Kitchener Centre.

With 180 of 216 polls reporting, Saini had 18,854 votes compared to 11,335 for Woodworth and 6,291 for NDP candidate Susan Cadell.

Monday marked the 14th time in 15 elections that Kitchener Centre (or its predecessor, the former riding of Kitchener) had voted the same way as voters did on the national level.

The sole exception in the past 47 years was 2006, when Karen Redman was elected for the Liberals despite the Conservatives forming a minority government.

Woodworth defeated Redman in 2008 by only 339 votes, and increased that lead to about 5,500 when Redman challenged him again in 2011.

His most publicized action in his seven years as an MP was an unsuccessful private member’s bill seeking a review of Canada’s laws around when a child is legally considered human.

Kitchener Centre’s boundaries were slightly different this time around, with southern and western parts of the city ceded to either Kitchener-Conestoga or Kitchener South-Hespeler.

Additionally, northern portions of Kitchener that had been part of the former Kitchener-Waterloo riding were added to Kitchener Centre for 2015.

Also running in Kitchener Centre were Nicholas Wendler of the Green Party, Slavko Miladinovic for the Libertarians, and Julian Ichim under the Marxist-Leninist banner.