Kyle MacQuarrie and Tim Houston.
November 27, 2024
-Rankin MacDonald
The results were an hour later getting to the voters of Nova Scotia in this the provincial general election of 2024, but when they were finally sent out the Riding of Inverness had a new MLA by the name of, Kyle MacQuarrie, of the Progressive Conservatives.
There were 14,499 electors in Inverness. MacQuarrie will represent the seat which was held by Deputy Premier Allan MacMaster who left provincial politics this fall to run in the next federal election if nominated in Cape Breton-Canso-Antigonish.
MacQuarrie defeated liberal Jaime Beaton and NDP Joanna Clark of the NDP. Inverness has never had a female MLA.
We spoke to MacQuarrie by phone at the Mabou Hall where he and his family and supporters gathered to await the results and he said representing the riding of Inverness “is a great feeling.”
“My family and friends are all here we are all pretty happy,” he said.
He believes he won because he listened to every voter he encountered and will continue to do so.
“I promised to work as hard as I can for them,” he added.
He said his first priority is to be accessible to the people and he will soon be sending out his contact information so they can easily get in touch with him.
When the election was called the Progressive Conservatives had 34 seats, the Liberal had 14, the NDP had six and there was one Independent.
There were six PCs on Cape Breton, one NDP, and one Liberal.
At press time, late on Tuesday night it looked as if Cape Breton would have the same distribution.
Kendra Coombes, NDP, had a handy lead in Cape Breton Centre-Whitney Pier over PC Darren O’Quinn and Liberal Derek Mombourqette, Sydney-Membertou, had a small lead over Brian MacArthur of the PCs.
The rest of the island went to the PCs including Trevor Boudreau, of Richmond and Keith Bain of Victoria-the Lakes,
Fred Tilley who crossed the floor from the Liberals to the PCs before the election took the seat for the PCs.
It looked like Zach Churchill, Liberal leader, was battling in Yarmouth for his seat.
The NDP will form the official opposition, under Claudia Chender, the first time for a Nova Scotia woman, to lead the Official Opposition.
In the student vote, 18,445 school students cast ballots in 158 schools. The PCs won 35, the NDP 12, the Liberals five and Independent one.
Speaking with, Joanna Clarke, she was actively watching the numbers with her future voters. “I will say my success here is that last time, I got about 7 per cent of the votes, this time I’m finishing with 12.5 per cent and my goal was 10 per cent, so a small win,” said Clarke.
Speaking with Jaime Beaton, Liberal candidate, ‘‘I’m happy. I know I worked hard, I’m proud of what I was able to accomplish in a quick campaign. I would do it all again. I intend to build a stronger Liberal Party in Inverness and want to engage the youth. I’d also like to thank everyone for their support and to congratulate Kyle.”
When we called it a night, the PCs under Tim Houston had 42 seats, the NDP 10, the Liberals three, with one Independent. The voter turnout in Inverness was 45.39 per cent.
There were 748,427 eligible voters in Nova Scotia for the 2024 election.
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