Miller-Ford Tory majority gives two Muskoka hospitals 1-2 punch

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

BRACEBRIDGE — Muskoka’s two hospitals just got a one-two punch at Queen’s Park.

Re-elected MPP Norm Miller and his wife Christine celebrate his sixth election win Thursday night at Kirrie Glen.

Norm Miller and Doug Ford.

The MPP and premier said all throughout the election campaign that Bracebridge and Huntsville both deserved full-service hospitals, each with an ER.

Miller confirmed that to TODAY in an interview some 90 minutes after the polls closed.

And in a congratulatory speech to 75 cheering supporter at Kirrie Glen golf course, he said it’s been a “stressful” campaign, which saw him put 7,000 kms on one of brother’s Ford cars.

But he was glad that “after 50 years there’s a Tory majority again.”

And it didn’t take the final numbers to arrive before it was Miller time again.

With the TV trying to blare the results over the adoring crowd’s adulation, Miller quickly took the mic to congratulate his rivals, thank his wife, Christine and sons Stuart and Winston and his 88-year-old aunt Eileen who licked envelopes.

And countless other Tories who came to his aid again in what should be a closer vote when the final results are known.

So what made the difference in him winning his sixth election?

Miller said afterwards that at the door: “It was clear that people were fed up with the Liberals.

He said he wasn’t “really surprised” that he won.

He was always “confident,” even if he said beforehand you never know.

Miller said the hospital file will be one of his main priorities he heads back to Queen’s Park after first tomorrow picking up election signs.

He said another of his focuses will be government red tape and hydro, both issues important to the North and that he has seen first-hand in his extensive travels throughout Ontario’s north.

And, of course, the local hospitals.

He re-iterated a central theme throughout his campaign, that unequal funding for small and medium-sized hospitals is the answer to the crisis in Parry Sound-Muskoka.

A crowd of more than 75 help MPP Norm Miller celebrate his PC majority win Thursday night.