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“Believe it or not, this was the easy part,” she said to a crowded arena floor at Maple Leaf Gardens. “We are going to need all of you working together.”

“We have to be ready at any moment to into a campaign,” she said, but added that Liberals must also be ready to govern.

The final tally was 56% of delegates for Ms. Wynne and 44% for Ms. Pupatello.

The delegated convention format was expected to provide opportunity for tense moments, and did not disappoint.

Moments after it hardened into a two-woman race after the second ballot, Ms. Wynne pulled off the day’s biggest coup, with Gerard Kennedy and Charles Sousa both dropping out before the third ballot. Mr. Sousa walked his delegates across the floor at Maple Leaf Gardens to join Team Wynne. Mr. Kennedy followed the same path moments later.

The third ballot remained, but unless large numbers of Sousa and Kennedy delegates had decided against following their candidates, Ms. Wynne was already poised to become Ontario's 25th Premier.

The battle was tight through two ballots, with Ms. Pupatello, the former Windsor MPP who quit politics in 2011 for a Bay Street job, taking 39.4% of delegates to Ms. Wynne's 36.2%, leading to immediate speculation that one of Charles Sousa (9.8%) or Gerard Kennedy (13.7%) — or both — would endorse someone before third-ballot counting was to take place.