Toronto Star – May 2, 2011
With the last federal elections of May 2, 2011, the Conservatives have wrested the seat of Don Valley East away from the Liberals in a major upset. Conservative Joe Daniel unseated incumbent Yasmin Ratansi, who had widely been predicted to be a shoo-in. Daniel earned 36.7 per cent support compared to 34.5 for Ratans. Mary Trapani Hynes had 25.1 per cent.
The mood was sombre at Liberal Yasmin Ratansi’s post-election party as the first polling stations reporting results showed her in second place. Don Valley East has been a Liberal stronghold for most of the last two decades. Immigrants account for 61 per cent of the riding’s population and many newcomers have encountered difficulty getting their foreign credentials recognized here. Yasmin Ratansi has represented it since 2004 and in the last election she won with a comfortable margin of more than 6,000 votes. Tanzanian-born Ratansi is an Ismaili Muslim and was Canada’s first Muslim woman member of Parliament.
