10-15-2008
Conservatives end three-decade P.E.I. lockout
Charlottetown Guardian
Prime Minister Stephen Harper walks with P.E.I. candidate Gail Shea in Summerside, P.E.I. Sept. 12. Shea won her seat, ending a thirty year Liberal reign in her riding. (Chris Wattie/Reuters) CHARLOTTETOWN - Conservative Gail Shea made a breakthrough for the party on Prince Edward Island Tuesday by ending the Liberal party's decade-long hold on the province.
Shea, a popular former provincial cabinet minister, defeated Liberal Keith Milligan, a former premier, in a close race that flipped back and forth between the two candidates in the riding of Egmont as the night went on.
Egmont has elected Liberals in every election since 1980. In the 2006 federal election, the Liberal party won the riding by nearly 4,300 votes.
In the end, Shea got 8,122 votes compared to Milligan's 8,060 votes, a difference of 62 votes - clearly within the recount range.
The NDP's Orville Lewis received 1,670 votes while the Green Party's Rebecca Ridlington received 626 votes.
In the rest of Prince Edward Island, the Liberal incumbents held onto their seats against a Conservative tide in much of the rest of the country.
Islanders returned Wayne Easter in Malpeque, Shawn Murphy in Charlottetown and Lawrence MacAulay in Cardigan.
Posted by: jgreen