In Sault Ste. Marie, local lawyer Ross Romano held onto his seat for the Ontario Progressive Conservatives, but just barely. 

He won a narrow victory over the New Democratic Party candidate, Michele McCleave-Kennedy, by about 400 votes, in a battle that wasn't decided until late in the evening.

For the second time in just over a year, Ross Romano was congratulated on stage with his family as he won another election and will represent the Soo at Queen's Park.

"It's been a lot of work. It's been a very long 18 months since David resigned on December 16, 2016." said Romano.

This election was much closer than the June by-election last year.

Romano only won this time by 414 votes, a big difference from the nearly 2,000 vote victory last year.

"As a conservative, as a Progressive Conservative, you often, it is said, you have to work twice as hard to get half as far. And this was one of those races, right till the eleventh hour. We were knocking on doors at 19 minutes to nine pm trying to remind people to get out and vote." said Romano.

"It was a close race and my team did great and I'm very impressed with all my volunteers." said McCleave-Kennedy.

During the campaign and in numerous debates in the riding, things got heated and at times personal, even more so than the 2017 by-election.

"It was a hard-fought election by everyone and all of the campaigns did very well and that's what I’ll say about that." said McCleave-Kennedy.

"There was a lot of attacking. It was unfortunate this campaign wasn't run cleaner." said Romano.

Jaclynne Hamel ran as the Liberal’s Sault Ste. Marie candidate.

"Politics can be heated and we have differences of opinions. I think, for the most part, we all conducted ourselves with relative respect. It can get a bit tough, but that's how it goes. You’ve got to have a thick skin.” said Hamel.

Romano says his first tasks will be to wrap up the creditor protection issues at the Algoma steel plant and to continue to lobby for the Ring of Fire ferrochrome plant to come to the Soo.

Even though Ross Romano won the provincial seat in Sault Ste. Marie, both McCleave-Kennedy and Hamel say they will definitely be running again in the next election.