BY JAY STRUTH
New Conservative MP Grant Jackson celebrated with supporters on Monday night in Brandon at Joe Beeverz Canadian Pub, as he was officially declared elected in Brandon-Souris.
Jackson won with 62.48 percent of the popular vote, picking up 27,746 of 44,409 votes in the riding. Ghazanfar Ali Tarar (Liberal) followed him at 23.16 percent, and Quentin Robinson (NDP) finished with 14.36 percent of the popular vote.
“We’re very happy with the result locally,” said Jackson on Tuesday. “It’s overwhelming, and I’m very humbled by the support. But it’s obviously not the national result we were looking for, so that is certainly disappointing. Although we did gain seats, but we lost a few as well.”
The biggest loss of a seat for the Conservatives was certainly that of their leader, Pierre Poilievre.
Early Tuesday morning, it became clear that Poilievre had lost his bid for re-election in Carleton, the suburban Ottawa riding he’s represented since 2004. The Liberals’ Bruce Fanjoy captured Poilievre’s Ottawa-area riding by about 4,300 votes.
“So we’ve got a lot of work to do moving forward,” said Jackson. “The sense I’m getting, being out and about talking to folks, is that Mr. Poilievre has a lot of support. I haven’t had a chance to speak with him yet, but I’m certainly looking forward to getting down to Ottawa and having the first caucus meeting with our team and really talking about where we go from here.”
Jackson added that they would also be holding Prime Minister Mark Carney and the Liberals to account.
“Mr. Carney has made a lot of commitments during this election. He really sold himself as the guy that was going to fix Donald Trump,” said Jackson. “We have some questions about how he plans to do that, so we’re very eager to get to work, and I hope he doesn’t waste much time in calling the House of Commons back and getting us into session.”
The Liberals won 169 seats in the House of Commons, with 43.69 percent of the popular vote, to form Canada’s next minority government. The Conservatives won 144 seats and 41.26 percent of the popular vote. The Bloc Québécois won 22 seats, The New Democrats were reduced to seven, and The Green Party picked up one seat.
“It’s always interesting when the separatists hold the balance of power,” said Jackson. “So that will be an interesting dynamic in this parliament, to see what The Bloc (Québécois) will support of Mr. Carney’s agenda and what they won’t.”
Jackson, 28, is now the youngest-serving MP for the riding of Brandon-Souris since its creation in 1953. He is also one of the few Conservative candidates in the country to participate in a constituency debate.
“It’s such a sincere privilege and an honour to be elected to this role for my hometown (Souris) and region in Westman,” Jackson said. “I’m really excited to get to work and just want to say thank you to everybody who cast their ballot for me, and to those who didn’t, I’m going to work hard to own their vote for next time, and make some real progress for this region.”
Grant Jackson resigned as MLA for Spruce Woods in March to run federally, after former Brandon-Souris MP Larry Maguire resigned due to health concerns.
ELECTION NIGHT WIN – Grant Jackson (left) celebrates with his girlfriend Ashley and his parents Cherilynn and Darryl at Joe Beeverz in Brandon on Monday evening.