Lisa-Marie Barron (left), Paul Manly (centre) and Tamara Kronis (right) remain locked in a tight three-way race for Nanaimo-Ladysmith, with a result unlikely until mail-in ballots are counted on Friday. (NanaimoNewsNOW/submitted photo)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

VOTE 2021

Nanaimo-Ladysmith too close to call as Johns cruises to third Courtenay-Alberni win

Sep 20, 2021 | 9:47 PM

NANAIMO — The expert predictions of a tight, three-way race in Nanaimo-Ladysmith have come to fruition.

Conservative Tamara Kronis and NDP Lisa Marie Barron remained separated by only a handful of votes through counting on Monday, Sept. 20 with incumbent Green Paul Manly close behind.

With upwards of 8,800 mail-in ballots still to count in the riding, no decision on a winner will be made in the short term. Mail-in ballots for the Nanaimo-Ladysmith won’t be counted until Friday.

“I think it’s great for Nanaimo that it had strong choices and I see that as a positive,” Kronis said. “I think there’s a tendency to characterize the party as this or that in the political spectrum and the truth is we all offer different things to Canadians…to the people of Nanaimo and I think it’s fabulous this riding has as much choice as it does because it means that people are able to focus on the things that matter most to them.”

Barron said she’ll await all the results to come in before making a decision to declare victory or concede defeat. She spent election night at home with her family and did not host a campaign event.

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“We sure have had a lot of support through this campaign, we don’t know the results right now but what we do know for sure is that there are a lot of supporters out there and a lot of excitement for some positive change and so we want to make sure all the supporters are just feeling a part of this as much as possible.”

Manly, the riding’s incumbent who won by nine points in 2019, is also awaiting the mail-in ballots with the riding far too close to call.

He was visibly frustrated with the national Green campaign and feels it may have affected his performance in the riding. He said the party wasn’t well organized at the national level.

“We should have been farther out ahead because we’re strong on climate issues, we’re strong on bio-diversity and environmental issues and actually I’m really strong on social issues, affordable housing and long term care. Those are things I’ve really been pushing for in the House of Commons to deal with our affordable housing crisis and deal with the root cause of that crisis.”

In Courtenay-Alberni, incumbent NDP MP Gord Johns will return to Ottawa for a third term. He held off an early challenge from Conservative Mary Lee but was projected the winner of the riding around 8:45 p.m. with an 11 point lead at the time.

Johns said he’ll get right back to work on Tuesday, repaying the faith showed in him by the voters.

“We’re in the middle of a COVID health emergency, we’ve got a climate crisis, opioid crisis, a housing crisis, an affordability crisis right now. People were very clear that they want to see us tackle inequality, they want to see us tackle these issues head on.”

Federally, the Liberals will form a minority government again. While a few seats changed hands throughout the night, the overall pickups by the major parties were minimal and Justin Trudeau will return to Ottawa with nearly the same seat totals he left with when the election was called.

The final totals could change with large numbers of mail-in ballots set to be counted in ridings across the country beginning Tuesday, Sep. 21.

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