By: Bruce Hain

Mr. Van Loan coasted to victory over his nearest rival, Liberal Judith Moses, by more than a two-to-one margin.

"The win is very strong," Mr. Van Loan said. "We received more than 50 per cent of the vote.

I'm very gratified and honoured to have that degree of support. I've tried to keep in touch with the community and the issues, such as Lake Simcoe, that people care about."

Only a few dozen party faithful attended a gathering held at Shoeless Joe's outside of Sharon.

Long-time Tory supporter John Trotter of Innisfil was on hand for the celebration.

"He's well-skilled and if every riding in Canada could send such a member to Parliament, we wouldn't have any problems."

Mr. Trotter said he was involved in all facets of the campaign, including door knocking, planting signs and organizing teams of volunteers.

"I think the people knew they had a fantastic candidate," Mr. Trotter said. "Peter is very well-known and people knew Peter did a lot for the riding."

Mr. Trotter, Mr. Van Loan and a team of campaign volunteers began election day well before dawn, traversing the entire riding to drum up support.

"It's been a good day today, due to a lot of hard work," Mr. Trotter said. "Peter doesn't take anything for granted. We were out at 5:30 a.m. canvassing. We covered the whole riding."

"I've worked in campaigns for more than 20 years," volunteer Rob Lawrence of Sutton said.

"Peter's are the most well organized. We had a great team working. Peter has been a campaign manager and knocked on doors himself. As a candidate, he knows how campaigns work. It's the volunteers who make it work and Peter understands that."

Ms Moses arrived at her headquarters in Bradford around 11 p.m. in high spirits.

"Not only do I not regret it; it's been a wonderful journey," she said of the campaign. "I love York-Simcoe and it's been a gratifying experience."

However, she did express disappointment at the results.

"It's a real shock, I must say, that the Liberals would perform as poorly as we did," she said.

"Clearly, our message as a Liberal Party has not resonated with people, not just here, but across the country."

Ms Moses was non-committal about her future in politics.

"I think it's too soon to talk next steps. We have to reflect on the party election — on the party," she said. "I'm a committed Liberal."

Third-place finisher Sylvia Gerl of the NDP said what she heard on the campaign trail wasn't reflected in the results.

"I heard from lots of new voters and lots of people saying that they were definitely not voting Conservative, which is a shock, because last time everyone who was undecided said they were definitely not voting Liberal," she said. "I saw a lot more people this time so I thought I had a better handle on what was going to happen."

Ms Gerl said she doesn't know if she'll run again.

Green Party candidate John Dewar went into the evening expressing optimism, saying he could finish as high as second. In the end, however, he finished fourth.

"I think we've passed some benchmarks in terms of performance," he said, noting he had twice as many volunteers and three times as many lawn sign requests than he had in 2006.