Conservative incumbent Jim Eglinski is headed back to Ottawa, albeit this time as a member of the official opposition, after the Liberals swept the country to form a majority government.
In a stunning upset Monday night, the Liberals won 184 seats with 39.5 per cent of the popular vote, forming a majority government and relegating the Conservatives to official opposition status. Their win also marked the end of Stephen Harper’s decade long run as prime minister.
The Conservatives won 99 seats, a far cry from the 159 the party held prior to the election. Harper is expected to resign as the party leader, but will remain a MP in his Calgary Heritage riding.
The NDP also had a tough night and won just 44 seats, consigning the NDP to third-party status. Prior to the election, the party held 95 seats in the House of Commons.
The Bloc Québécois won 10 seats in Quebec, improving upon the four seats it won in 2011, but fell two seats short of official party status. Green Party leader Elizabeth May was the only Green Party candidate to win her riding.
Locally, the race was never in question, with early poll results indicating Eglinski would easily be re-elected to a second term as the member of parliament for Yellowhead. Ultimately he won with 72.2 per cent of the popular vote.
“I'm very pleased to see the number of people who came out in this riding. We had a 70 per cent turnout and I think that's outstanding and I'd like to compliment the residents of this riding,” said Eglinski, the day after the election.
"I'm a little disappointed of course with what took place back east with our party losing a number of positions, but we will be a strong opposition. I'm going to make sure [Justin Trudeau] sticks to his promises and I'll be a thorn in his side."
Eglinski was first elected in a 2014 by-election, replacing long-time Conservative MP Rob Merrifield.
On Monday night, his closest competitor was Liberal candidate Ryan Maguhn who garnered 14.2 per cent of the popular vote, a six per cent drop in Liberal support compared to his 2014 by-election results.
“I think the best way to sum it up is we lost the battle, but we won the war,” said Maguhn, after conceding defeat.
“It was an excellent fight for us in the riding. We worked very hard to touch base and really tried to bring the concerns of the voters to the national stage, but at the end of the day we have a majority government and that’s a big thing for us.”
Ken Kuzminski, a local Jasperite and the NDP candidate, earned 9.1 per cent of the popular vote.
“Getting to know all the candidates over the past few months, all of them are quite passionate about Canada and I would have been proud to have anyone of them as a member of parliament representing us,” said Kuzminski. “I’ll be looking forward to working with Jim Eglinski in the coming months and years as he represents us in this riding.”
Green Party candidate Sandra Wolf Lange won 2.9 per cent of the popular vote, while Libertarian candidate Cory Lystang earned 1.6 per cent.
According to Elections Canada, 52,439 votes were cast in Yellowhead. Eglinski earned the lion share with 37,850 votes. Maguhn was a distant second with 7,467 votes, while Kuzminski earned 4,753. Wolf Lange garnered 1,542 votes and Lystang earned 827.
According to Elections Canada, voter turnout in Yellowhead was 70.9 per cent, almost 15 per cent higher than the general election in 2011 and four times higher than the 2014 by-election. Nationally, more than 68 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot, the highest turnout since 1993.
The story of the night, however, was the Liberal comeback, which saw the party shift from third-party status to Canada's majority government.
“I am not the one who made history tonight, you are,” said Prime Minister-designate Justin Trudeau, to a crowded rally in Montreal.
“We beat fear with hope. We beat cynicism with hard work. We beat negative, divisive politics with a positive vision that brings Canadians together.
“I will be the prime minister of all Canadians.”
As Trudeau celebrated, Harper experienced a bittersweet moment; he was re-elected in his Calgary riding, but failed to secure a fourth mandate as prime minister.
“In the last nine and a half years I had the incredible honour of serving as your prime minster and it has been a great experience to have met Canadians from coast to coast to coast during the last two and half months of this campaign,” said Harper in a concession speech he delivered to a crowd in his Calgary riding.
“We put everything on the table. We gave everything we had to give and we have no regrets whatsoever.”
Despite losing more than 50 seats, NDP leader Thomas Mulcair stuck to a positive upbeat message in his concession speech.
“Friends, from the very outset this election has been about change and tonight Canadians have turned a page on 10 long years and they rejected the politics of fear and division,” he said.
Mulcair thanked his supporters for re-electing him in his Montreal riding of Outremont, but didn't say whether he planned to stay on as leader of the New Democratic Party.
Paul Clarke
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