PCs increase their riding count in Cape Breton
Tory Fred Tilley re-elected to Northside-Westmount despite floor crossing
The Progressive Conservatives increased their hold on Cape Breton's ridings in Tuesday's election, gaining one seat.
In the last provincial election in 2021, the Progressive Conservatives won five out of Cape Breton's eight seats, the Liberals two and the NDP one. This time around, two PC MLAs — Keith Bain and Allan MacMaster — did not reoffer in Victoria-The Lakes and Inverness.
The PCs were on track to win in six ridings as of late Tuesday night. NDP incumbent Kendra Coombes held on to her seat in Cape Breton Centre-Whitney Pier, and Liberal Derek Mombourquette was leading PC candidate Brian MacArthur in Sydney-Membertou.
Northside-Westmount
Progressive Conservative Fred Tilley was elected in Northside-Westmount, holding on to his seat.
Tilley was elected as a Liberal in 2021, but crossed the floor to join the PCs in the days before the election was called. His opponent, Liberal Danny Laffin, also has a history of switching parties.
"Of course some folks were a little upset with [me crossing the floor], others were jubilant," said Tilley in an interview with CBC News before results came in.
"For me, it is about being a constituency MLA. What I heard on the doors mostly was, 'Fred, we don't care if you're red, blue, green or whatever colour,'" he said.
The NDP fielded Katelyn Armstrong.
Victoria-The Lakes
Voters in Victoria-The Lakes had the longest ballot of any riding, with five candidates vying to represent the area. The riding includes the Eskasoni and Wagmatcook First Nations.
Dianne Timmins, a new candidate for the PCs, held on to the seat for the party.
The former constituency assistant for Keith Bain ran against Liberal Stephen MacAskill, NDP candidate Samuel Stirling, the Greens' Adrianna MacKinnon, and Independent candidate Stemer MacLeod, who has run in every provincial election since 1993.
Inverness
The riding of Inverness has gone blue since 1999, even through elections with major Progressive Conservative losses.
The trend continued Tuesday as PC candidate Kyle MacQuarrie was elected, defeating the NDP's Joanna Clark and Liberal Jaime Beaton.
MacQuarrie, a high school educator, was named the party's candidate after Allan MacMaster announced he wouldn't reoffer, choosing instead to run for the federal Conservatives.
The riding includes Chéticamp. The Nova Scotia Supreme Court recently ruled the electoral boundaries in the Acadian area should be re-evaluated after an Acadian group argued it should be its own riding due to the cultural identity of the people who live there.
Richmond
The riding of Richmond is one of four protected ridings. The boundaries have been redrawn to match the county lines and increase the odds of electing an Acadian member to the Legislative Assembly.
Progressive Conservative Trevor Boudreau was first elected in 2021 and held on to his seat in the legislature Tuesday.
Boudreau said he knocked on 2,000 doors and heard from people who were concerned about health care, housing, affordability, cellphone coverage and roads.
"Those are the things that matter to people and there's work to do on all of those fronts, but they believe and we believe that we are the party to do that," he said.
The NDP candidate was Marc Currie, while the Liberals ran Rochelle Heudes.
Cape Breton Centre-Whitney Pier
New Democrat Kendra Coombes won the riding of Cape Breton-Whitney Pier. She was first elected in a 2020 byelection and was the party's only MLA on the Island when the election was called.
"The first priority for me is start dealing with the work I had to stop because of this election," Coombes said in an interview with CBC News.
Coombes will be part of the Official Opposition, and said she is focused on the issues of affordability, health care, housing and coastline protection.
She faced PC Darren O'Quinn, a recently re-elected CBRM councillor, and Liberal Joleen Magliaro.
Cape Breton East
Brian Comer was re-elected for the Progressive Conservatives. He was first elected to represent Cape Breton East in a 2019 byelection.
Comer faced Liberal Joe Ward, who finished second in last month's CBRM mayoral race, and NDP candidate Isabelle Lalonde.
Glace Bay-Dominion
PC incumbent John White was re-elected to represent Glace Bay-Dominion. He won the seat in a close race in 2021.
White ran against the NDP's Kathy Chapman and Liberal David Alexander MacLeod.
Sydney-Membertou
Liberal Derek Mombourquette won Sydney-Membertou in a 2015 byelection. He was leading Progressive Conservative Brian MacArthur, who previously owned the Cape Breton Business College, by almost 400 votes as of midnight.
The NDP finished second in Sydney-Membertou in the last election. This time, they pitched lawyer Alison Aho to voters. This is one of two ridings on the Island where the Greens have a candidate. Steven McGrath is an IT professional.
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With files from Tom Ayers, Kyle Moore and Brittany Wentzell