Down to the wire
Chisholm edges Boudreau in tight two-horse race
GUYSBOROUGH - Conservative Ronnie Chisholm was narrowly returned as MLA for Guysborough-Sheet Harbour in an incredibly tight, see-sawing vote on Tuesday night.
Chisholm and NDP candidate Jim Boudreau were neck-and-neck for the majority of the vote but the incumbent Tory pulled away as the last few polling results arrived. That same theme played out across the province as the Conservative government was returned but with a margin too slim to achieve its majority goal.
In Guysborough-Sheet Harbour, support for Liberal candidate Dave Horton - who attracted 1378 votes, or just 20.35 per cent of the overall tally - spectacularly collapsed as results began pouring in. That left Boudreau and Chisholm to fight out a two-horse race.
Statistics suggest much of that Liberal support went Boudreau's way. He attracted 2540 votes, or 37.51 per cent. That was a sharp rise from the 2003 vote, where Boudreau received 2023 votes (29.71 per cent).
Chisholm, meanwhile, received 2765 votes (40.84 per cent) on Tuesday night. That represented a marginal rise from 2003, when he received 2587 votes (37.99 per cent).
The Journal spoke to both Chisholm and Boudreau moments after the result became official.
"I'm very happy," Chisholm, who now enters his fourth term as Guysborough-Sheet Harbour's MLA, beamed. "It was close."
He said the tight race hadn't frayed his nerves.
"You know, I've been through this before - this is my fourth one," he said.
"Strange things can happen in politics and you always prepare yourself for the worst. Luckily the worst hasn't happened yet.
"I'm very pleased. Jim Boudreau, Dave Horton and Marike Finlay all ran very good races and…we do our political things to get our point across but we can still come out and be friends."
When asked why he thought the riding was almost equally split between the Tories and the NDP and what he needed to do to strengthen his supporter base, Chisholm said: "I don't know…I think the last election was the most I've won by."
"I keep doing what I do and I'd like to think I'm a good constituency guy," he said.
"Guysborough County has always been a very close vote. Unless there's a real groundswell of support for one person…it's not going to go one way."
Boudreau, meanwhile, said the close result meant "at least 60 per cent of the people in this riding…aren't happy with the existing government."
"I'm disappointed," Boudreau added.
"Obviously any time you come this close you're disappointed. But I'm more disappointed for the people who worked so hard and tried so hard - my campaign team, everyone who went out on a limb and took that extra step for me.
"At the end of the day I have a good job to go back to that I enjoy but that wasn't the point of my running. I wanted to put politics back in the hands of the people.
"It was anybody's seat. It see-sawed back and forth. It'll be interesting to look back at the poll-by-poll analysis and see what happened.
"My congratulations go out to Ronnie Chisholm. And realistically, the NDP has made Ronnie Chisholm work very hard. And if he wants to hang onto this seat, to be MLA, to be the representative, he'd better be accountable."
When asked if he'd consider running again, Boudreau said he'd "never say never."
"It's been a very positive experience but I don't know yet," Boudreau said. "I'll sit back and see how it goes and I will continue to be available to people. I'll still be doing my volunteer work, that's not going to change and we'll see from there."
He also offered Chisholm his support if he wanted help to work on the riding's issues.
"That's what I'm here for, that's my purpose," Boudreau said.
The Journal was unable to contact Horton.
Green Party candidate Marike Finlay was not a factor in the race, attracting just 88 votes (1.3 per cent).
Chisholm spent the hours leading up to the result having some "home time."
"I tilled my garden, mowed my lawn and…I'm going to have my grandson staying here with me tomorrow and so I'm going to spend some more time at home," he said.
"It's very satisfying. I've met a lot of great people over the last seven years and I'm looking forward to continuing doing that."
