The race for the Flin Flon seat is beginning to heat up, as Progressive Conservative (PC) candidate Theresa Wride is catching up to NDP incumbent Tom Lindsey.
At 9:45 p.m., with 12 of 56 polls reporting, Lindsey leads with 476 votes, while Wride is second, only behind by 86 votes. James Lindsay, the Liberal candidate, sits third, well back with 68 votes, while Green candidate Saara Murnick has received 50 votes.
Another NDP candidate is a likely winner, this time in Keewatinook. NDP candidate Ian Bushie leads with 522 votes, far ahead of PC candidate Arnold Flett and Liberal Jason Harper who both have under 100 votes. Fifteen of 54 polls are reporting in Keewatinook.
The Pas-Kameesak has will also likely see an NDP win, as Amanda Lathlin leads PC Ron Evans by over 750 votes with 24 of 54 polls reporting. Ralph McLean, the Green candidate, is in third place.
With numbers rolling in province-wide, there’s a return to form for the PC party across much of Manitoba. While Brian Pallister’s PC party will be forming a majority government, it won’t be as strong as the 2016 election.
The 2015 election saw the PCs win a historic victory, taking a whopping 40 seats. Before today’s election, the party held 38 seats in provincial legislature.
The Canadian Press (CP) forecasts the PCs will win 36 seats. Out of that 36, 31 of those seats have been called by the Canadian Press. The NDP sit second with 18 seats, up from the 12 they held before this election. CP considers 12 NDP candidates to be likely winners.
Three Liberal candidates, Dr. Jon Gerrard, Dougald Lamont and Cindy Lamoureux - all Winnipeg-based incumbent MLAs - are considered likely winners by CP. The election results mean the Liberals, who occupied four seats before the election, may lose official party status in Manitoba. A party needs to have at least four MLAs to be considered an official party in provincial legislature.
