Newfoundland and Labrador remained primarily red but many of the races were tight until the home stretch. There were two upsets in the province, with the Conservatives making a breakthrough with their first seat in the province since Peter Penashue in Labrador.
Clifford Small defeated long-time Liberal MP Scott Simms in the central Newfoundland riding of Coast of Bays, Central, Notre Dame. Small, originally from Wild Cove on the Baie Verte Peninsula, is the owner of Smitty’s Family Restaurant in the metro region. He credits his hard work on the hustings and what he heard was a desire for change.
Joanne Thompson of the Liberals and Mary Shortalll of the NDP flip-flopped all night but in the end, Thompson regained St. John’s East for the Liberals.
Gudie Hutchings got a scare from Conservative Carol Anstey in Long Range Mountains but, in the end, was declared the victor. The same was true in Bonavista-Burin-Trinity where Conservative Sharon Vokey waged a strong campaign against Liberal incumbent Churence Rogers (Bonavista-Burin-Trinity) who is heading back to Ottawa.
Liberals Ken McDonald (Avalon), Yvonne Jones (Labrador) and Seamus O’Regan (St. John’s South-Mount Pearl) were declared elected fairly early on.
Earlier Story
It’s federal election day in Canada, and the polls are closed in Newfoundland and Labrador.
VOCM News’ live coverage is officially underway.
Linda Swain and Paddy Daly will be on-air for the next few hours breaking down all the latest election news.
One of the ridings to watch as the election results begin to pour in will be St. John’s East.
The NDP incumbent Jack Harris isn’t running this time around, and those vying for the seat have been campaigning hard to try to sway voters.
Mary Shortall is the candidate for the NDP, Joanne Thompson is in the running for the Liberals, Glenn Etchegary is running for the Tories, and Dana Metcalfe is on the ballot for the People’s Party.
As well, both Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh both made stops in the district during the campaign, rallying support for their candidates.
Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole visited the west coast of the province during the campaign, but did not make an appearance in St. John’s East. He did however visit St. John’s a few weeks before the writ was dropped.
There are Liberal incumbents in all six of the province’s other federal ridings. The Conservatives, NDP, and People’s Party have candidates running in virtually all of those, the only exception being in Coast of Bays-Central-Nortre Dame where the People’s Party doesn’t have a name on the ballot.
The polls close at 8:30 p.m. tonight. VOCM’s live election coverage begins at 7.
Meanwhile, the full picture of how the country will be governed over the next four years may not be entirely clear by the end of the night tonight.
As the pandemic is still gripping the country, many opted to vote by special ballot.
In total, Elections Canada says it issued over 1.2 million voting kits to electors. As of Saturday, over 811,000 of those had been returned.
The counting of those ballots won’t start until Tuesday morning, meaning the final results may not be known for a few days.
Federal Election NL Candidates
Avalon
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(Ken McDonald – Liberal Party; Matthew Chapman – Conservative Party; Carolyn Davis – NDP; Lainie Stewart – PPC.)
Bonavista-Burin-Trinity
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(Churence Rogers – Liberal Party; Sharon Vokey – Conservative Party; Anne Marie Anonsen – NDP; Linda Hogan – PPC.)
Coast of Bays – Central – Notre Dame
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(Scott Simms – Liberal Party; Clifford Small – Conservative Party; Jamie Ruby – NDP.)
Labrador
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(Yvonne Jones – Liberal Party; Shane Dumaresque – Conservative Party; Amy Norman – NDP; Shannon Champion – PPC.)
Long Range Mountains
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(Gudie Hutchings – Liberal Party; Carol Anstey – Conservative Party; Kaila Mintz – NDP; Darrell Shelley – PPC.)
St. John’s East
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(Joanne Thompson – Liberal Party; Glenn Etchegary – Conservative Party; Mary Shortall – NDP; Dana Metcalfe – PPC.)
St. John’s South – Mount Pearl
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(Seamus O’Regan – Liberal Party; Steve Hodder – Conservative Party; Ray Critch – NDP; Georgia Faith Stewart – PPC.)