Saskatchewan has 2 of 5 closest races in Canadian election
70 votes decide Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River, 143 decide Regina-Lewvan
There were nail-biters all over Canada on Monday night, but two of the five closest races were in Saskatchewan.
The NDP's Georgina Jolibois won Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River against Liberal candidate Lawrence Joseph by a margin of 70 votes.
The northern Saskatchewan riding was the second-closest race in Canada. The incumbent in the seat was Conservative Rob Clarke, who came in third.
Well-known candidates
Jolibois is the mayor of La Loche, and had a high public profile during the summer forest fires. Joseph is a former chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations.
The five closest races with the margin of victory in brackets:
- Elmwood-Transcona (51 votes)
- Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River (70 votes)
- Edmonton Mill Woods (80 votes)
- Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte (110 votes)
- Regina-Lewvan (143 votes)
In the last federal election, Joseph ran as a New Democrat under the leadership of the late Jack Layton. He lost to Clarke by 794 votes (3.63 per cent).
Regina-Lewvan was won by the NDP's Erin Weir late Monday night, following a see-saw battle that often saw Conservative Trent Fraser in the lead.
Regina-Lewvan had the most voters of all the Saskatchewan ridings — 47,826.
In the end, Weir received 143 more votes than Fraser. Liberal candidate Louis Browne ran a strong third, receiving 27.5 per cent of the popular vote.
Last time Weir ran, it wasn't close
In the 2004 federal election, Weir ran for the NDP in the Regina's Wascana riding against popular Liberal candidate Ralph Goodale. That year Weir came in third, losing by 14,796 votes.
Goodale was elected for the eighth straight time on Monday.
Meanwhile, the closest race in the country was in Manitoba's Elmwood-Transcona where the NDP's Daniel Blaikie beat the Conservative candidate Lawrence Toet by 51 votes.
A judicial recount is automatic if the vote differential is less than 0.1 per cent of the number of people who voted in that particular riding.
The difference would need to be 30 votes or less in Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River and 48 votes or less in Regina-Lewvan.