Two prominent local Liberal candidates were hoping to retake their ridings Monday night, but were unable to hold back the Tory push.

The Kitchener-Waterloo riding was the closest race in the country in the last election, but it was a much clearer victory this time around.

Incumbent Conservative Peter Braid widened his winning margin over long-time Liberal Andrew Telegdi. In 2008 he took the seat from Telegdi by 17 votes, this time, he won with a more than 2,700 vote gap.

Braid now says he will return to Ottawa with a renewed focus after a win that "feels a lot better" with a focus on "more of the same, jobs and economic growth and having a strong voice in government."

Before he was defeated in 2008, Telegdi had held the seat since 1993, but now he's looking for a new career.

"I had a great stretch of runs. I've been in Parliament for 15 years, I was on local council for eight years. I will pass on the torch for somebody else to do it," he says.

Votes for the NDP that the Liberals needed to take the seat are being blamed for the loss. It's a similar vote split to the one between the Progressive Conservatives and Reform Party that divided the right for years.

According to Telegdi "We ended up with a result that clearly Canadians didn't want. They did not want a Harper majority government, but because of the splits that's exactly what we got."

It was a similar scene in the hotly contested Kitchener Centre riding, where former Liberal MP Karen Redman had hoped to retake the seat from Conservative Stephen Woodworth.

Redman has not yet decided if she will run again after a second loss to Woodworth. The margin in this defeat grew from 339 votes in 2008 to over 5,000 votes.

She says "I'm surprised locally that Conservative candidates did as well as they did, because I heard an awful lot of anger at the door against Mr. Harper."

Woodworth believes it was a very personal election, "I've worked very hard in the last two and a half years and we've put a real emphasis on serving constituents and I think that makes a difference."

The trend toward incumbent Conservatives holding their ridings was one that was repeated across southwestern Ontario Monday night.