‘Very grateful’ MP Morantz keeps seat after votes verified

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This article was published 27/09/2021 (1183 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

IT’S official: Tory Marty Morantz will remain the MP for west Winnipeg.

The nail-biter race is over between the incumbent and Liberal Doug Eyolfson, who was beaten by Morantz in 2019. It means all of Manitoba’s 14 incumbent MPs won their seats on Sept. 20.

After the votes were counted, Morantz had a 24-vote lead over Eyolfson in Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley.

Though both candidates expected the tight margin to trigger a recount, Eyolfson conceded Tuesday after a validated vote count found Morantz had secured the seat by 460 votes.

“Though we didn’t get the results we were hoping for, I’m very proud of the campaign we ran. I had a fantastic team around me who left no stone unturned and I have no regrets,” Eyolfson tweeted Tuesday after congratulating Morantz.

Eyolfson, who plans to return to work as an emergency physician, held the seat from 2015 to 2019.

In an email, Elections Canada spokeswoman Natasha Gauthier explained the validated count — a routine process in which the returning officer checks the vote count for “errors in arithmetic, typos, data-entry errors and other issues” — revealed “one significant change” in the tally.

Gauthier said validation caught a “transcription error” involving results written out by hand.

“Preliminary results must be validated in every riding. Validation happens in front of observers from the candidates and/or parties, and is a normal and important part of the democratic process. It is very common to see changes in the count following validation,” she wrote.

Validations are still taking place in ridings across the country, Gauthier said, and final tallies and automatic recounts will not be available until validation is complete.

Morantz said he feels great after a hard-fought campaign.

“The results took a little longer than everybody anticipated, but at the end of the day it worked out, so I’m certainly very grateful.”