Newly minted Progressive Conservative MHA Pleamon Forsey chose to watch the election at home with his family on Thursday night, May 16.
He sat and watched as the early polls pitted himself and Liberal incumbent Jerry Dean in a race that seemed like it could go down to the wire.
However, as the results from more and more polls came in, Forsey's lead kept widening.
First, he was ahead by some 100 votes and then his lead climbed to a couple of hundred vote. By the time the last poll was counted, Forsey had accumulated an impressive 2,874 of the votes compared to Dean's final tally of 1,924.
Independent Gloria Cooper was never a threat to overtake the seat and finished a distant third with 1,015 votes.
"We were watching the screen as polls kept coming in our favour," he told The Central Voice. "I was overwhelmed by the support that was coming in."
Forsey said he saw the election as a call by the people in his new district for stronger representation amid some economic opportunities that were missed by their previous MHA.
Those same people gave him the confidence to keep going with his campaign early on, he said.
Forsey was having his post-election victory party at the Lions Club in Bishop's Falls.
He plans to enjoy the night before his new position really starts to take off.
"We're going to take it one day at a time ... see what Mr. Crosbie has planned for us and get to work tomorrow," said Forsey.
Attempts to reach Dean for comment prior to deadline were unsuccessful.
