NDP leads in Nunavut; Liberals projected to win Nunavik
Liberal Mandy Gull-Masty projected to win in Abitibi-Baie-James-Nunavik-Eeyou
NDP candidate Lori Idlout was holding the lead in Nunavut as votes were still being counted into early Tuesday morning.
Idlout had 2,324 votes, or 40.2 per cent, at about 3 a.m. ET when 56 of the territory’s 66 polls had reported. Liberal candidate Kilikvak Kabloona was in second place, with 1,890 votes, or 32.7 per cent.
Conservative candidate James T. Arreak was in third with 1,564 votes, or 27.1 per cent. He had been holding second place as some of the early polls reported.Polling stations across the territory’s three time zones closed at 9:30 p.m. ET (8:30 p.m. CT, 7:30 p.m. MT).
Arreak, Idlout and Kabloona were the only candidates in the territory. Brennan Wauters was named the Green Party candidate, but his name was not on the ballot come voting time.
Elections Canada says there are about 21,400 voters registered in the territory.
Nunavut voters historically don’t favour a particular party.
In the 2019 federal election, Nunavut voted in an NDP representative for the first time since 1982. The NDP were elected again in 2021.
In 2015, Hunter Tootoo won the seat as a Liberal candidate. Before that, Leona Aglukkaq took the seat for the Conservatives in 2008 and 2011, and was named health minister and later minister of environment by former prime minister Stephen Harper.
Prior to that, Nancy Karetak-Lindell, originally of Arviat, held the seat for the Liberals for over a decade.
Nunavik
Liberal candidate Mandy Gull-Masty is projected to win Quebec’s biggest riding, Abitibi-Baie-James-Nunavik-Eeyou.
Two hundred and thirteen polling stations for the region, out of 214, have submitted results.
Gull-Masty is in the lead with 12,256 votes, ahead of Bloc Québécois incumbent Sylvie Bérubé who has 10,296 votes. Also in the running are Conservative candidate Steve Corriveau with 6,788 votes and NDP candidate Thai Dillon Higashihara with 726 votes.
There are roughly 65,800 electors on the list for this riding.
However, many voters were not able to vote Monday as Elections Canada struggled to open voting stations. Voters in at least five Nunavik communities told CBC their polling stations closed after just a few hours, or didn’t open at all.
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