Manitobans are officially done voting in the federal election and a few ridings have seen changes.
In the first of two close races that were called later in the night, Liberal incumbent Robert-Falcon Ouellette was beaten by NDP upstart Leah Gazan in Winnipeg Centre.
The second late-called race saw Winnipeg South incumbent Terry Duguid’s hold off Conservative Melanie Maher to ultimately keep his seat.
Polls closed in Manitoba as of 8:30 p.m. CST.
There are 14 ridings in Manitoba, eight within Winnipeg. The Liberals swept seven of those Winnipeg seats when voters last went to polls in 2015.
The NDP went into this election with two Manitoba seats, and the Conservatives had five seats, all outside of Winnipeg.
When the dust settled this time around the Liberals landed with with four seats, the NDP picked up one to bring their total to three, and the Conservatives increased their riding count to seven.
As results came in, it was clear the Tories would have no problem holding onto their rural Manitoba seats.
Early on after the polls closed Global News declared incumbent Conservative MP James Bezan the winner in Selkirk-Interlake-Eastman, incumbent Conservative MP Candice Bergen the winner in Portage-Lisgar, and Conservative Dan Mazier the winner in Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa.
Global News also soon declared incumbent Conservative MP Larry Maguire the winner in Brandon-Souris and incumbent Conservative MP Ted Falk the winner in Provencher.
Meanwhile the Conservatives picked up two seats in Winnipeg, with Raquel Dancho winning over Liberal incumbent MaryAnn Mihychuk in Kildonan-St. Paul and former Winnipeg city councillor Marty Morantz bettering Liberal Doug Eyolfson in Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia-Headingley.
As well as Gazan’s win in Winnipeg Centre, the NDP held on to both of the ridings they came into the election with.
Incumbent Niki Ashton kept her northern Manitoba riding of Churchill-Keewatinook Aski, and incumbent MP Daniel Blakie won again in Elmwood-Transcona.
The Liberal’s four seats all came in Winnipeg, with the party keeping Kevin Lamoureux’s seat in Winnipeg North, Dan Vandal’s seat in St. Boniface-Saint Vital, and Jim Carr’s seat in Winnipeg South Centre along with Duguid’s seat in Winnipeg South.
Carr said his work has just begun.
“We will do it with that same sense of shared value, our role in the world,” said Carr.
He also didn’t appear to be worried that the Liberals had lost seats and were given a minority government mandate.
“You don’t have back-to-back majorities simply in Canada. They’re very rare.”