It’s rare to see Cartwright-L’Anse au Clair any colour but red. And that didn’t change in 2019.
Lisa Dempster, the Liberal incumbent, was re-elected as the district’s MHA on Thursday evening, receiving 67 per cent of the vote.
The Charlottetown native was happy to regain her seat, although she was concerned the party has lost its majority government, sitting at 20 seats.
She called the occasion “bittersweet”.
Dempster was elected as MHA in 2013, in a byelection spurred by the resignation of Yvonne Jones.
She was re-elected in 2015 and is now heading into her third term.
She called this campaign the hardest she has had to fight.
“I worked really hard, it was my first-time campaigning as an MHA coming out of government and people’s expectations of you are that much higher as a government member,” she said. “I got up every day and knocked on doors.”
Dempster credited her campaign team, saying the win would not have been possible without their hard work, as well as her family for their support.
“I owe so much gratitude to the voters of Cartwright-L’Anse au Clair who have entrusted me again,” she added. “I am so humbled. Even though I’m coming off a campaign where I should be tired, I am completely motivated and energized.”
Michael Normore, Dempster’s opponent in the race, faced a daunting task running against a Liberal in Cartwright-L’Anse au Clair.
Only twice since 1956, has the region elected someone other than the Liberal candidate: in 1972, when Michael Martin was elected as a member of the Labrador Party in the district then known as Labrador South and, again, in 1996 when Yvonne Jones was elected as an independent. Jones later joined the Liberal Party.
