Conservatives win again in Battlefords-Lloydminster

Tory stronghold continues in Battlefords-Lloyd. The Conservative stronghold in Saskatchewan's Battlefords-Lloydminster riding continued Monday in the federal byelection.

The federal Conservatives are keeping the Battlefords-Lloydminster seat.

Rosemarie Falk, the Conservative Party of Canada’s candidate in Monday’s byelection, has won the riding with nearly 70 per cent of the close to 12,900 votes cast.

“I’m excited to hit the ground running,” she told her supporters in Lloydminster following her win. “I want to thank each and every one of you for coming here tonight and being a part of this whole process.”

Falk beat out four others — the NDP’s Matt Fedler, the Liberal Party’s Larry Ingram, the Green Party’s Yvonne Potter-Pihach and independent Ken Finlayson — to take the House of Commons seat.

Fedler finished second with a little over 13 per cent of the vote, Ingram landed in third with roughly 10 per cent, and Finlayson beat out Potter-Pihach for third place.

Falk will replace long-serving Conservative MP Gerry Ritz with the win. Ritz had held the seat — with the Conservative Party of Canada since 2004, but also with the Reform Party and the Canadian Alliance — for two decades before announcing his resignation in August.

“Gerry Ritz did a lot of things, a lot of things for (agriculture) and for trade,” Falk said. “Of course I’ve got big shoes to fill, but I’m willing to do it.”

Falk, a 29-year-old social worker and mother, spent a few months on Parliament Hill assisting Conservative MP Arnold Viersen before electing to run.

Her win bumps the Conservatives back up to 10 Saskatchewan seats in the House of Commons. The party briefly held nine following Ritz’s departure.

The NDP remains at three seats and the Liberals at one.

The byelection was one of four across the country Monday. Byelections were also held in British Columbia’s South Surrey-White Rock riding, the Newfoundland and Labrador riding of Bonavista-Burin-Trinity and the Scarborough-Agincourt riding in Ontario.

Results for Battlefords-Lloydminster are still unofficial as of Monday night. About 27 per cent of registered voters cast ballots in the riding.

--- with files from Jennifer Jellicoe