Churence Rogers will represent the Liberals in the upcoming Bonavista-Trinity-Burin byelection.
Rogers, who is the mayor of Centreville-Wareham-Trinity and previously served as president of Municipalities Newfoundland and Labrador for four years, beat out Dale Foote, Larry Guinchard, Pete Soucy and Merv Wiseman.
Voting took place in the district on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Rogers told SaltWire Network Thursday he had strong support from his home riding – the Bonavista North area – and received tremendous treatment and hospitality with people coming forward to help out as he went throughout the rest of the district.
“It’s a super feeling, I’m pretty excited,” he said. “It was a lot of work, but I have a tremendous team working for me."
All five candidates were in Clarenville for the announcement just before noon. Vote results have not been made available to the public.
"I’ve got to say, when it was announced this morning, it was a bit of a surreal moment, and I congratulated all of the candidates on a very clean and hard fought campaign. They are all great people and have committed to work for me," Rogers said.
Soucy offered his congratulations to Rogers and thanked his supporters on his Facebook page earlier today.
The byelection will take place on Dec. 11.
Bonavista-Burin-Trinity was previously held for the Liberals by Judy Foote, who announced her retirement from politics for family reasons in August.
Rogers said an official announcement and campaign kick off is planned for Friday at the Curtain Call Café in Milton with a time yet to be finalized.
"The plan now is to get out and meet as many people as possible over the next three weeks," Rogers said.
"I’m pretty familiar with the riding now, having gone through it three times within the last six weeks. There are issues around infrastructure, harbours in need of infrastructure improvement, support from the federal government in terms on industrial development. We all know the challenges rural Newfoundland and Labrador are facing … so I want to create a dialogue with the people and work on their behalf."
With the nomination process done, the focus shifts to retaining the seat for the Liberals.
"Judy Foote done a marvelous job as an MP, and I’m hoping to win this seat and carry on some of the great work that she was doing," he said.
