Conservative Brad Redekopp has been re-elected in Saskatoon West.
The incumbent MP won with around 2,500 votes over the NDP candidate, echoing his 2019 election.
The polls showed New Democrat and former Metis Nation – Saskatchewan president Robert Doucette was leading until around 9:30 p.m.
“The way the polls come in, it’s always our worst polls that come in first,” said Redekopp.
“And so you start to go, ‘oh my goodness,’ you know, ‘this isn’t looking good.’ And then, you know, they kind of come together and then we start to move ahead.”
He said watching the polling stations report back was a rollercoaster.
The lead swung back and forth between the two. At one point Doucette had a 10 percentage point lead that shrunk to just one per cent in 20 minutes.
Speaking to Global News before Elections Canada called the riding, Doucette was stoic.
“There’s only two results in an election. You either win or you lose,” he said.
“I’ve told kids this and I’ve always lived this way. You know, when you when you get knocked down, you brush the dust off your pants.”
Both described mixed feelings.
Redekopp previously told Global News getting rid of Justin Trudeau was the main issue before voters.
But the Liberals will once again form government.
“We’re going to have a lot of upset voters in Saskatoon and in Saskatchewan and in western Canada,” he said.
“We’re going to have to go back and figure out what happened.”
When asked if the People’s Party of Canada sapped votes away, Redekopp said conversations he had with voters indicated the votes came from all camps. And he said some came from disenfranchised voters who hadn’t cast a ballot in a long while.
The PPC candidate Kevin Boychuk finished fourth with 6.4 per cent of the vote, at time of writing and with 168 of 169 ballots reporting.
Dr. Ruben Rajakumar of the Liberals claimed 8.1 per cent and the Green Party’s David Greenfield had 1.1 per cent.
Doucette said the NDP gain of a seat nationally indicated the New Democrat “brand is something that people are gravitating around now,” which bodes well for the party.
Both candidates agreed on one thing – they both said the election, which cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in the middle of the fourth wave of COVID-19, wasn’t worth it.
“It’s a terrible waste of money,” Redekopp said.
“And the prime minister should be embarrassed.”
Comments