It was a bittersweet night for Fin Donnelly, the NDP MP-elect, who pulled off a win in the riding of Port Moody-Coquitlam Monday night while while, nationally, the orange wave was subdued by the red tsunami of Liberal voters.
Even in Donnelly's riding, albeit changed from 2011, the Justin-Trudeau-led Liberals managed a good showing, with flag bearer Jessie Adcock garnering more votes than Conservative Tim Laidler, according to Elections Canada results.
With 190 of 213 polls reporting, the Elections Canada website had declared Donnelly a winner, with 36% of the popular vote, compared to 30.6% for Adcock and 29.9% for Laidler.
"It was a long haul," Donnelly admitted before a throng of noisy volunteers at Pasta Polo restaurant in Coquitlam, but he offered congratulations to his opponents as well as thanks to his volunteers, who he said won the battle on the ground.
"I know I lost a few good colleagues tonight," Donnelly said, but he said the NDP fought a "principled fight" and did " great job right across this country."
"Today, Canadians rejected the politics of fear and division, they voted for a better and more inclusive Canada. And my friends, I will certainly continue to fight for those values each and every day," Donnelly said.
Tim Laidler, an Afghanistan war veteran, was unable to make enough gains to win the riding for the Conservatives and, after conceding the win to Donnelly, said he was "obviously disappointed."
"We had been working hard since February and had a great teem of volunteers. It was an honour and a privilege to take part in the process," Laidler said, adding that he would continue to champion veterans' causes.
As for why the Liberals did so well, pulling votes away from both Donnelly and himself, Laidler said he was surprised.
But Adcock told The Tri-City News she could see the tide turning towards more support for the Liberals in the months she was knocking on doors in what was the longest federal election in modern history.
"What I was seeing was a three-way race," Adock said, suggesting that many Canadians liked the Liberals' promise to put money towards infrastructure.
"We're going to get a majority, which is great."
Wih 90% of polls counted, Donnelly had 18,208 votes, Jessie Adcock had 15,540 votes, and Laidler had 15,191.
The Green Party, represented by Marcus Madsen, polled 1,737 or 3.4% of the vote, about what the local Green Party got last time, and Marxist-Leninist candidate Roland Verrier earned 76 votes.
The riding, newly created for this election, has 78,693 voters on the list, according to Elections Canada.
Watch for more election coverage here Tuesday and in print on Wednesday in The Tri-City News.
