Liberals win Newfoundland byelection

THREE OTHER BYELECTIONS CONTESTED MONDAY

The Liberals retained two safe seats and the Conservatives hung onto a safe seat of their own in three of four federal byelections held Monday.

But the results were still trickling in late Monday in the one riding — British Columbia’s South Surrey-White Rock — where the Liberals were hoping to score an upset over the Conservatives.

With 189 of 199 polls reporting, Liberal contender Gordie Hogg was leading with 47.2 per cent of the vote, just five percentage points ahead of Conservative Kerry-Lynne Findlay, a former Harper-era cabinet minister who represented a neighbouring riding for one term before being defeated in 2015.

Should Hogg prevail, it would be the second byelection loss in as many months for newly minted Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer. And it would be the first time in 70 years that a Liberal has represented any portion of the riding, the boundaries of which have changed a number of times.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, meanwhile, the Liberals easily retained Bonavista-Burin-Trinity, the safest Liberal seat in the country.

With all polls reporting, Liberal Churence Rogers captured 69.2 per cent of the vote — 46 percentage points ahead of his nearest competitor, Conservative Mike Windsor. Windsor, who ran in 2015, nevertheless managed to double his share of the vote to 22.9 per cent, while the NDP candidate finished a distant third with less than five per cent.