Recount anticipated after Conservative incumbent Marty Morantz snags re-election by 24 votes
Candidates in the Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia-Headingley riding are anticipating a judicial recount, after Marty Morantz of the Conservative Party of Canada snagged re-election with just 24 votes over Liberal candidate Doug Eyolfson.
Nearly two days since polls closed in Canada, CTV News Decision Desk declared Conservative Incumbent Morantz has been re-elected with 17,336 votes, compared to Eyolfson who garnered 17,312 votes.
"I'm feeling great – it has been a very tense couple of days," Morantz told CTV News Wednesday night, thanking his family and volunteers on the campaign.
The tense days may not be over yet in the riding. With such a small margin between the two candidates, Morantz said a judicial recount must take place.
According to Elections Canada, a judicial recount must take place if the difference in votes is less than one one-thousandth of the total votes cast.
RECOUNT HOLDS 'GOOD CHANCE' THAT RIDING COULD FLIP TO LIBERALS
"I can't remember a margin so tight in a Manitoba election as this one – 24 votes is a very, very tiny amount," said Christopher Adams, adjunct professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba.
“Forty-four thousand votes were cast in this election. So 44,000 votes counted, and you can bet that 24 is such a tiny margin that there is a good chance – not a strong chance, but there is a good chance – that this might get flipped back to Doug Eyolfson."
He said a recount would see Elections Canada officials reopen ballot boxes and examine every single vote under the watchful eye of scrutineers from the candidates' campaigns and likely their lawyers as well.
"There will be a number of spoiled ballots that were considered spoiled ballots and there will be some disputes about some of those, about whether they were spoiled or whether they should be counted for one of the candidates."
Morantz said he will let the process unfold.
"I am very happy that I have been re-elected to parliament and I can't wait to get back to Ottawa to continue to fight for the constituents of this great riding and in fact for all Canadians. At the same time, I am going to respect the process," he said.
A spokesperson for Eyolfson's campaign said the Liberal candidate will not be speaking with media until a recount has been completed. On Twitter, Eyolfson said they anticipate a recount to happen in the coming days.
PPC SUPPORT MAY HAVE PULLED FROM CONSERVATIVE BASE
Adams said if the riding does stay with Morantz after the recount, then all 14 incumbents in Manitoba will have been re-elected in this election.
He said one of the factors that may have attributed to such a close race between Morantz and Eyolfson is the support given to the People's Party of Canada (PPC).
The riding's PPC candidate Angela Van Hussen collected a total of 1,573 votes.
"We do know that in national polling data that the People's Party draws overwhelmingly from those who traditionally vote for the Conservative Party," Adams said.
"If the People's Party hadn't been running in this election, you can bet Marty Morantz wouldn't have had such a tiny, tiny margin over Doug Eyolfson."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Appeals court overturns Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction from landmark trial
New York’s highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction, finding the judge at the landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case.
BREAKING Honda to get up to $5B in govt help for EV battery, assembly plants
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
1 arrested in northern Alberta during public shelter order
Residents of John D'Or Prairie, a community on the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta, were told to take shelter Thursday morning during a police operation.
Secret $70M Lotto Max winners break their silence
During a special winner celebration near their hometown, Doug and Enid shared the story of how they discovered they were holding a Lotto Max ticket worth $70 million and how they kept this huge secret for so long.
Remains from a mother-daughter cold case were found nearly 24 years later, after a deathbed confession from the suspect
A West Virginia father is getting some sense of closure after authorities found the remains of his young daughter and her mother following a deathbed confession from the man believed to have fatally shot them nearly two decades ago.
Monthly earnings rise, payroll employment falls: jobs report
The number of vacant jobs in Canada increased in February, while monthly payroll employment decreased in food services, manufacturing, and retail trade, among other sectors.
First in Canada procedure performed at London, Ont. hospital
A London man has become the first person in Canada to receive a robotic assisted surgery on his spine. Dave Myeh suffered from debilitating, chronic back pain that led to sciatica in his right now and extreme pain in his lower back.
Doctors say capital gains tax changes will jeopardize their retirement. Is that true?
The Canadian Medical Association asserts the Liberals' proposed changes to capital gains taxation will put doctors' retirement savings in jeopardy, but some financial experts insist incorporated professionals are not as doomed as they say they are.
Something in the water? Canadian family latest to spot elusive 'Loch Ness Monster'
For centuries, people have wondered what, if anything, might be lurking beneath the surface of Loch Ness in Scotland. When Canadian couple Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman visited the Scottish highlands earlier this month with their two children, they didn’t expect to become part of the mystery.