RICHMOND COUNTY: The Progressive Conservative sweep of Nova Scotia included a long-time Liberal riding in Cape Breton.
With 28 of 28 polls reporting, Elections Nova Scotia (ENS) has PC candidate Trevor Boudreau winning comfortably in the riding of Richmond with 2,773 votes, while Liberal candidate Matt Haley has 2,009 votes, independent candidate Alana Paon came away with 394 votes, and first-time NDP candidate Bryson Syliboy received 266 votes.
According to ENS, the voter turn-out in Richmond was 71.43 per cent.
The MLA-elect said he was happy to receive support in traditionally Liberal parts of the riding, like Isle Madame and Louisdale.
“I’m very overwhelmed. I was expecting it in certain places. There’s typically certain places that are more Tory, and other places that are more Liberal. Of course, being from Louisdale, I was hopeful that Louisdale would support me. I’ve seen gains in a number of places across the riding. It shows that there’s support across the board, it’s not just in one little area or two little areas, so I’m really pleased with that,” Boudreau told The Reporter. “Not that I wasn’t expecting any support on Isle Madame, but typically, it’s been a strong Liberal part. I didn’t win every poll there, or not even close to that, but I did well, generally speaking, in all polls so there was support in all of them there.”
The new PC MLA said the amount of groundwork he’s put in since being nominated last year had the desired effect.
“My message about being there, and reaching out, knocking on doors, and spending the time at the doors, it worked,” he noted.
Boudreau, a chiropractor who co-owns In Motion Chiropractic Centre in Port Hawkesbury, was nominated last summer. A former Port Hawkesbury Town Councillor, Boudreau is past vice-president of the Strait Area Chamber of Commerce, a former chair of the board for the Louisdale Community Homes, former chair of the Allan J. MacEachen Airport in Port Hastings, and the co-chair of the Cape Breton South Recruiting for Health Committee.
Although he was pleasantly surprised at the PC’s majority win, Boudreau attributed it to the substance his party brought to the campaign on issues like health care and restarting the economy.
“Surprise is one word; I think we thought it was going to be close,” he said. “It all depends on where you get your vote and we seem to have gotten it across the board. Rural Nova Scotia has sent a signal that we’re there for them, and that’s what seems to be case here right now.”
The last PC MLA for the riding of Richmond was Greg MacIsaac who took the riding in the PC sweep of 1984 under former Premier John Buchanan. Richie Mann won the riding back for the Liberals in 1988 and 1993.
In the 2017 election, in which Richmond County – along with the Town of Port Hawkesbury and parts of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality – were part of the riding of Cape Breton-Richmond, Liberal incumbent Michel Samson was defeated by then Progressive Conservative candidate Paon by 21 votes. Paon was removed from the PC caucus two years later.
Back in 2013, Samson took Cape Breton-Richmond by 2,673 votes. The former Liberal cabinet minister was first elected in Richmond in 1999.
In 2012 the NDP government created Cape Breton-Richmond; a move the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal ruled unconstitutional in 2017.
In April, 2019, Nova Scotia’s Electoral Boundaries Commission recommended that Richmond be preserved as a protected Acadian riding, and by October of that year, the provincial government tabled changes to the House of Assembly Act officially restoring the riding.
“There’s a lot of work to be done,” Boudreau added. “We’ll celebrate tonight and get to work tomorrow. That’s really what it comes down to. And there’s a lot. It’s not something that’s going to happen overnight. There’s time and effort that’s going to have to get put into what it is that we want to do.”