There were points during Monday night and early Tuesday morning – several of them, in fact – when it was impossible to predict who would be the next MPs of northern Manitoba and northern Saskatchewan.
In the northern Manitoba riding of Churchill-Keewatinook Aski (CKA), incumbent New Democrat Niki Ashton held a consistent lead over Liberal Rebecca Chartrand, but it was at times slender.
At 11:26 pm, for instance, Ashton was winning by just 102 votes. Results from dozens of reserves had yet to come in, and it looked as though those votes could shift the balance in favour of Chartrand.
That never happened, as Ashton widened her lead as the night went on.
Ashton may have won, but she also lost. Her NDP, which a short time ago seemed poised to form government, was relegated to third-party status amid a monumental breakdown.
Given that the Liberals hold a majority, the New Democrats can’t pretend to hold much sway in the next parliament. The NDP’s attempt to move closer to the centre backfired in spectacular fashion, alienating the base and sending many progressive voters to the Liberal camp.
Of course the big losers on the night were the Conservatives, who watched their carefully constructed majority collapse. The Tories lost 60 seats and now form the official opposition – with Stephen Harper out as leader.
The Conservatives gave up on CKA long before election night, running paper candidate Kyle Mirecki. Mirecki cared so little about the election that he conducted zero media interviews with The Reminder and other media outlets who wanted to cover the election as fairly as possible.
Sure CKA is a no-win riding for the Tories, but Mirecki’s unwillingness to even look like he was playing the game reflects poorly on a party that likes to present itself as the voice of rural Canadians.
In northern Saskatchewan’s riding of Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River (DMCR), some believed incumbent Rob Clarke would be insulated against the national collapse of the Conservative vote.
He wasn’t, and now New Democrat Georgina Jolibois will take his place, assuming, of course, her 70-vote victory stands.
On a personal level, I liked Clarke. I still remember interviewing the former Mountie at the Prospector Inn in 2008 when he was a by-election candidate who admitted to another reporter he didn’t think he’d win.
Clarke put countless kilometres on his pick-up truck and won that by-election the old-fashioned way: knocking on doors and shaking hands. He was re-elected in 2008 and 2011.
I was struck by how quickly Clarke went from political neophyte to hard-core partisan, but I guess that’s what happens when you go through the grind. I have met very few MPs who answer questions in ways that avoid attacking their political opponents.
In Jolibois, DMCR has elected a respected First Nations advocate and four-term mayor of La Loche. It will be interesting to see how she transitions from civic politics to the big stage in Ottawa.
But the real question now facing northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan is this: Which Liberal Party have Canadians elected?
Is it the Liberals who preach the importance of building a better Canada? Or the Liberals who offloaded airports and other costs onto cash-strapped provinces and municipalities?
Is it the Liberals who divided rural and urban Canada with programs such as the long-gun registry? Or the Liberals who purport to be the natural governing party of all Canadians?
We now have four years to find out.
