After last night’s election, Stephen McNeil’s Liberals will once again return to Province House with a majority mandate. It’ll be the first time since 1988 that a party in Nova Scotia has achieved back-to-back majorities.
All three major party leaders retained or won their seats. PC Leader Jamie Baillie won Cumberland South on election night with 51.5 per cent of the vote, Premier Stephen McNeil retained his riding of Annapolis with 64.7 per cent of the vote and NDP Leader Gary Burrill won his seat against Liberal incumbent Joachim Stroink with 46.1 per cent of the vote. But results were far from the status quo.
Here is a quick breakdown of what you need to know from Tuesday’s election.
27 – The number of seats that the Liberals won. While it is enough for a majority, it’s seven fewer seats than the party had at dissolution.
READ MORE: Nova Scotians elect Stephen McNeil’s Liberals to second straight majority government
17 – The number of seats that the Progressive Conservatives won last night. Jamie Baillie’s second kick at the can as PC leader saw his party gain quite a few seats but not enough to form a government.
7 – The number of seats that the NDP won on election night. The NDP picked up two seats from where they started at dissolution and their leader, Gary Burrill, will now represent the party in the legislature after he defeated Liberal incumbent Joachim Stroink in Halifax Chebucto.
5 – The number of electoral districts decided by fewer than 100 votes. The ridings of Cape Breton-Richmond, Waverley-Fall River-Beaver Bank, Guysborough-Eastern Shore-Tracadie, Chester-St. Margaret’s and Cole Harbour-Eastern Passage came down to the wire Tuesday night. The vote count in the final ballot box was often the factor that decided each race.
READ MORE: All of our Nova Scotia election coverage
9 – The number of incumbents that lost their seats in the election. Eight of the seats were held by Liberals while the other was held by the NDP.
4,983 – The biggest vote margin of any riding in the province went to Premier Stephen McNeil in Annapolis. McNeil was just shy of having 5,000 votes separate him and NDP challenger Colin Sproul.
17 – The number of women MLAs elected on Tuesday. Eight of them will be new to the house.