Christopher Mitchelmore is staying put as MHA of St. Barbe – L’Anse aux Meadows.
The Liberal incumbent, who hails from Green Island Cove, was re-elected Thursday evening picking up nearly 60 per cent of the vote.
Mitchelmore told the Northern pen he felt honoured that the residents of the district put faith in him to continue his work since 2011.
He looked forward to getting back to work.
“After knocking on 5,000 doors in the district and talking to thousands of people, there are certainly lots of issues at hand, everything from health care to the economy,” he said. “Certainly, have to dig in and do a lot of work with Black Duck Cove given the disaster that happened just last night. I’m readily available as MHA-elect and we’ll be busy doing work that I’ve been doing since 2011.
“I’m pretty excited and honoured and I thank everybody for allowing me to continue to do this work.”
Mitchelmore celebrated the evening with his family, friends and supporters at his home in Green Island Cove.
“Everybody is pretty excited,” he said.
Mitchelmore was first elected as an NDP in the old The Straits – White Bay North district in 2011.
He left the party in 2013 and sat as an independent until 2014, when he joined the Liberal Party.
He was re-elected in 2015 in the then new St. Barbe – L’Anse aux Meadows district.
Mitchelmore will now enter his third term as MHA.
Meanwhile, Sheila Fitzgerald, Mitchelmore’s Progressive Conservative opponent in St. Barbe-L’Anse aux Meadows, expressed her disappointment at the turnout.
But she says she wouldn’t go back and change anything.
“Putting my name on the ballot, it was a privilege to do that,” she told The Northern Pen.
She called the campaign a “humbling” experience, meeting a lot of “sincere and kind” people along the way, while acknowledging that St. Barbe – L’Anse aux Meadows is traditionally a Liberal stronghold.
“Sometimes it felt like running against Joey Smallwood,” she said.
She also thanked her campaign team and her family, including her father and two sons, for their support.
Fitzgerald will continue her work as mayor of Roddickton-Bide Arm and intends to re-apply for her job as a social work supervisor with the Department of Children, Seniors and Social Development.
