Carol Anstey is the 1st woman slated to become a Conservative MP in N.L.
The Conservative Party has added a seat in Newfoundland and Labrador after Monday's election, a win that marks a first in the province's history.
Conservative MP-elect Carol Anstey won Long Range Mountains by a margin of more than 3,000 votes as of 2 a.m. NT Tuesday over Liberal candidate Don Bradshaw.
She's the first woman to represent Newfoundland and Labrador in Ottawa as a Conservative.
Real estate agent Anstey took the seat previously held by Liberal MP Gudie Hutchings. Anstey campaigned in 2021 and lost the race by only around 1,800 votes.
She said that tight margin motivated her to run again.
"[It] made me really want to continue to push and work for this win tonight," said Anstey.
Anstey said she is already thinking about policy changes she wants to see in Ottawa.
"I really want to see some good fisheries policy move forward. I really want to see some natural resource development in this province," said Anstey.
The last time a Conservative held a seat in the area was in 1978, in the riding called Humber-St. George's-St. Barbe. The seat was held by Conservative MP Jack Marshall from 1968 to 1978.
Longtime reporter Bradshaw said he isn't sure how he lost the seat.
"We were getting good response at the doors and our phone calls were indicating that we we had a lot of support," he said.
He recounted his time as a journalist, when he asked a losing politician about what went wrong, and the politician responded that maybe people weren't telling the truth at the doors.
"Maybe that was the case here as well," Bradshaw said.
Meanwhile, in Central Newfoundland, MP Clifford Small kept his job in Ottawa, winning over Liberal Lynette Powell by about 4,000 votes.
When Small first won the seat in 2021, he was the first Conservative elected in the province since 2011.
During his campaign, Small said cost of living and crime were the main issues he heard at the doors. He said he anticipated the win.
"The people have spoken," he said.
After losing the Central Newfoundland seat Liberal candidate Lynette Powell said she hopes Small will take care of the district.
"You go out there and you take care of the people of Central Newfoundland because they need you," she said.
The Liberals held onto their spots in the Avalon, Cape Spear, St. John's East and Labrador ridings.
New faces Paul Connors and Tom Osborne took the Avalon and Cape Spear seats respectively, beating Conservatives Steve Kent and Corey Curtis.
In Labrador, Philip Earle also beat Ella Wallace by just over 8 per cent of the vote.
In St. John's East, Joanne Thompson was re-elected by a landslide, beating out the Conservative's David Brazil and NDP's Mary Shortall.
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