The north Oakville resident was deemed the winner less than one hour after the polls closed as she quickly pulled ahead by hundreds and then thousands of votes.

Around 11 p.m., Raitt gave her victory speech to the dozens of supporters who gathered to celebrate with her at the Best Western hotel in Milton.

The new MP — amidst chants of “Lisa! Lisa!” — said the vote of confidence in her and the Conservatives is immense and touching.

“Thank you, Halton,” she said. “It (the campaign) has been the most meaningful five weeks of my life.”

Raitt said it’s no secret that Halton riding “has been without representation” on the government side of the House of Commons for a while.

“It ends tonight,” she said, which was met with by a round of cheers.

The married mother of two went on to thank her campaign team, the Halton Conservative Association, her family and people at the Toronto Port Authority, where she was the president and CEO until recently taking an unpaid leave of absence to run in the election.

“It was a team victory,” she said. “Everyone on our team dedicated themselves and pulled together.”

She also acknowledged the other local candidates who she said worked hard to deliver their messages on behalf of their parties.

“They have made democracy stronger,” she said.

While things often became heated during Raitt and Turner during the campaign, she said she thinks he’s a “talented individual” who has superlative writing skills and great public speaking skills.

She closed by saying she’s looking forward to taking her seat in the House of Commons.

“I will do everything in my power to ensure the trust you’ve placed in me is used to make Halton a better place to work and to live,” she said.

Going forward, Raitt said one of her first priorities will be to make sure people understand what kind of riding Halton is.

“Halton is new Canadians, it’s new families, it’s rural, it’s farmers. It’s growing so fast that we have to have attention paid to it,” she said. “We have to make sure the pace of the expansion is met by the infrastructure needs we have. I’m going to fight for what’s needed in Halton, and that’s infrastructure.”

She said she wants to develop a plan with Regional Chair Gary Carr and the local mayors to help deliver on the infrastructure needs.

Melanie Hennessey can be reached at mhennessey@miltoncanadianchampion.com.