Provincial New Democrats are still basking in the glow of overturning 2021 election results and forcing a Liberal cabinet minister to vacate his seat.

John Abbott’s departure forms a key part of the settlement in the dispute over how the vote was conducted in the district of St. John’s East-Quidi Vidi.

Abbott defeated then-NDP Leader Alison Coffin by just 53 votes, but there were widespread reports of problems voting in the so-called pandemic election, leading to a court challenge of the results and the process.

After four years of legal wrangling, the trial was set to start on Monday.

But instead, the case was settled yesterday.

An elated Coffin said the settlement was everything they could have hoped for.

“It was beyond our wildest dreams that we could have such a good, clean, clear solution to this before we head into this next general election,” she said.

Coffin was promptly asked if she would be a candidate in that election, since Abbott has said he won’t.

“I’m not sure what I’m going to do next, but I certainly know that I’ve been given a pretty big springboard,” she said. “So I think I’m going to have some big conversations with a lot of people and I think that we’ve opened up a new era of democracy in Newfoundland and Labrador.”

Lawyer Kyle Rees, who was president of the NDP at the time and led the court challenge, said it all could’ve been avoided if the provincial government had accepted responsibility from the start.

“Like most people in Newfoundland and Labrador, we thought the provincial government would do that. We thought the Liberal government, which had just been elected, in this election that resulted in concerning outcomes, would take the right steps in order to solve this problem because, after all, why should private litigants have to do something like that — spend their time and money in order to try to correct a problem that is a government problem?” he said. “Well, that didn’t happen.”

A byelection won’t be held in St. John’s East-Quidi Vidi since the next general election could be called any day and must occur by October 14.

Settlement Outcome Does Not Tint Work Done Since 2021, says Abbott

Meanwhile, John Abbott does not believe his work over the last four years has been tainted by the outcome of the recent out-of-court settlement, and his decision to step down later this summer.

Abbott does admit, however, that he has heard that idea floated around, but he takes it as a “personal validation” that no member of the public has ever said that to him, believing that he was accepted by people in his district.