Preston switches to blue as Progressive Conservatives’ Twila Grosse wins byelection

Progressive Conservative Twila Grosse has won the provincial byelection in the Nova Scotia riding of Preston.

Grosse beat out Colter Simmonds of the NDP and Liberal Carlo Simmons, who were both in a race for second place in the five-way contest about an hour after polls closed Tuesday night.

With 29 of the 29 polls reporting, Grosse had 1,950 votes. Simmonds was next with 1,145 votes, followed by Simmons at 1,021.

The byelection, called on July 7, became necessary after Liberal Angela Simmonds stepped down in April.

Health care, affordable housing, gas prices and economic development were among the main issues during the campaign.

There were 11,125 registered voters in the riding according to Elections Nova Scotia.

Heading into the byelection, the governing Progressive Conservatives held 31 seats in the provincial legislature, followed by the Liberals with 16 seats, the New Democrats with six and one Independent.

The Liberals captured 43 per cent of the votes in the riding in the 2021 provincial election, with the Progressive Conservatives and New Democrats almost equally splitting the remaining ballots cast.

The campaign managed to generate some controversy in its closing days.

Last week, Dorothy Rice, Nova Scotia’s chief electoral officer, ordered the Liberals to remove signs and other campaign material that she said contained false statements concerning a potential dump in the riding’s Lake Echo area.

Rice called in the RCMP to assist with a formal investigation under the provincial Elections Act after the Liberals refused to comply with her order. She had acted on a complaint by the Progressive Conservatives over what they said was misleading material wrongly asserting that Premier Tim Houston was doing nothing to stop plans for the dump.

In a statement from the Liberal campaign for Simmons in which the candidate congratulated Grosse for her victory, party leader Zach Churchill took a parting shot at the Progressive Conservatives and Elections Nova Scotia.

“It’s unfortunate that the Houston Conservatives chose to run a campaign that played on misinformation towards voters rather than speaking on its own record in government for the last two years, which was unfairly supported by Elections Nova Scotia.” Churchill said.

Meanwhile, Rice had also asked the Progressive Conservatives to clarify signs that implored local residents to vote against the “Liberal carbon tax. She said the word “federal” should be inserted before Liberal.

Elections Nova Scotia said the byelection saw the first use of an electronic ballot system in Canada during early voting. The system allowed voters to choose a candidate on an electronic tablet in the polling station rather than marking a paper ballot.

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Officials said 2,166 early votes were cast.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 8, 2023.