Lin Paddock wins Baie Verte-Green Bay byelection
CBC
Progressive Conservative candidate Lin Paddock has won the Baie Verte-Green Bay byelection, handily beating his closest opponent by more than 3,000 votes.
With all 52 polls reporting, Paddock secured 79 per cent of ballots cast — 4,271 votes — according to unofficial results from Elections Newfoundland and Labrador. Liberal Owen Burt had 1,035 votes and NDP candidate Riley Harnett had 96 votes.
Elections N.L. reported 5,402 votes cast out of a possible 9,562, for a voter turnout of about 56.5 per cent.
Paddock will replace Liberal MHA Brian Warr, who had represented the district since 2015.
It was Paddock's second attempt on the district ballot. He ran for the PC party in the 2021 general election, losing to Warr by 171 votes.
The district, formerly known as Baie Verte-Springdale, covers 40 communities in the northern coastal area of central Newfoundland.
The byelection is the second consecutive win for the PCs, led by Tony Wakeham. Candidate Jim McKenna turned a seat in the House of Assembly from red to blue in the byelection in Fogo Island-Cape Freels in April.
With a Paddock win, the Liberals still hold a majority of 21 of 40 seats in the legislature. The PC win moves the party to 13 seats, with the NDP remaining at three seats. Two MHAs are Independents.
Paddock made headlines last week for comments he made during a debate in Green Bay about the provincial government recruiting doctors from overseas.
"We need to recruit in areas that love this, places like Germany where they adore the outdoors, not India and Pakistan where they will come here and then go to Toronto," Paddock said during the debate.
In an interview with CBC News days later, he called the comments "poorly worded" and said they weren't meant to be derogatory.
Monday marks the third byelection of the year in Newfoundland and Labrador. Another one will come later this year, following the announcement from Health Minister Tom Osborne that he will retire in July.
Download our free CBC News app to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Click here to visit our landing page.
Aggressive patients and lack of security are making nurses feel unsafe in a rural Western Manitoba emergency union, says the Manitoba Nurses Union.
Saskatoon resident Delynne Bortis knew her commute to work Tuesday morning would be particularly difficult.
WARNING: This story contains details of abuse and intimate partner violence:
The amount of money it takes for people to earn a living wage has increased across the province, according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
The new owner of Ontario steelmaker Stelco says his company "will not disappoint the people of Hamilton and Nanticoke," where the business's major facilities are based.
A Winnipegger is warning others about an intricate scam she says she almost fell for.
Fort William First Nation is opposing a planned redevelopment of the Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) 117 year old Kakabeka Falls Generating Station, which is located in their traditional territory.
A building that sits at the corner of Sussex Street and Brunswick Avenue has had many lives over the last century — being a church, a school and offices. Now it's set to become housing, at a time when the city sorely needs it.
A Waterloo, Ont., elementary school principal will be sentenced in the new year after pleading guilty to child sexual exploitation charges following a joint investigation that involved the London, Toronto and Waterloo police services.
Students at UPEI have let their student union know what they want from the province this fiscal year, and those priorities are reflected in a 2024-2025 advocacy document brought to the legislature on Wednesday.
Larger communities in the N.W.T. will soon see a boost in their territorial funding to maintain infrastructure and deliver services — like water and waste management — but the increase still falls short of what communities need.