STELLARTON: For the third election in a row Sean Fraser has taken the seat in Central Nova.
With 231 of 232 polls reporting, at the time of publication, the incumbent Liberal candidate had recorded 17,984 votes and was declared elected.
“My initial reaction to the local election is one of gratitude and validation. I want to thank the voters of Central Nova and to my campaign team for working their tails off,” Fraser told The Reporter. “Not only just over the past six weeks, but really over the past six years with their desire to connect with people, to help people in our community, and that’s what makes this possible.”
He suggested the results signal to him, the Liberal Party is on the right track strengthening communities, and advancing policies that help improve the quality of life for constituents all throughout Central Nova.
According to the preliminary results from Elections Canada, Fraser garnered 45.8 per cent of the vote in comparison to Conservative candidate Steven Cotter’s 32.4 per cent, 15.6 per cent from NDP candidate Betsy MacDonald, People’s Party of Canada candidate Al Muir’s 3.6 per cent and 1.2 per cent from Green Party candidate Katerina Nikas.
“It means the people have been seeing the work we’ve been doing, it means they appreciate seeing concrete projects going ahead putting people to work in our communities, but it also means they’re taking a look at the path forward as we try to exit the greatest public health emergency and economic crisis of our time,” Fraser said. “And seeing the plan we put forward to strengthen public health care, to fight climate change, to make life more affordable, to get Canadians working again, is the right path forward.”
He appreciates there are different people with different views, but he believes the results speak for themselves and demonstrate they’re on the right path and they have a plan that Canadians trust and that will pull the country out of the COVID-19 pandemic more effectively than what the other parties had on offer.
Fraser was first elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Central Nova in 2015 after Peter MacKay, a longstanding Conservative representative decided not to re-offer, and Fraser went on to receive 25,909 votes, which amounted to 58.5 per cent of the overall vote.
Despite having 5,000 fewer votes in 2019, he was re-elected to the House of Commons, after securing 20,718 votes and accounting for 46.6 per cent of the tallies cast, which again was down from the previous election.
“In 2015 and 2019, I think a lot of people were looking at us with a lot of hope for what is to come. I think now having gone through this pandemic and having seen projects get advanced, while people still look with hope and optimism about what might come next, they’re also now judging you on your record,” Fraser said. “Judging you on the projects you’ve advanced in your community, on the difference you’ve made on your constituents, on the policies that are actually making a difference in their day-to-day lives, whether it’s the Canada Child Benefit, the National Housing Strategy, or the plan to fight climate change.”
Prior to the election being called, he was the parliamentary secretary to the deputy Prime Minister and minister of finance and parliamentary secretary to the minister of middle class prosperity and associate minister of finance; and has been the government’s parliamentary spokesperson for fiscal issues during the COVID-19 pandemic and economic recovery.
Previously, he also served as the parliamentary secretary to the minister of environment and climate change.
Fraser suggested he senses the results really do affirm they’re on the right path, and even though they can always try and find a way to do more, or be better, people are happy with the job that was accomplished over the past six years.
He explained the first priority with the majority of the people he spoke with on the doorstep was the need to do more strengthening the public healthcare system.
“We need to make good on our commitment to transfer $10 billion to the province to help clear the COVID-19 backlog, because this pandemic has put an extraordinary amount of pressure on our public health system,” Fraser said. “But we also need to move forward with our dedicated transfers to help provincial government to hire more doctors and nurses, expand on mental health services, improve the quality of long-term care.”
He also suggested they want to make sure that they partner with the new provincial Progressive Conservative government to allow them to make good on their promises.
For up to date results, you can visit the Elections Canada website: https://www.elections.ca