Liberals win most seats across Canada’s North

Three Liberal MPs were elected in Northern ridings in Monday's election, while no Conservatives prevailed anywhere in the region.

By David Lochead, Nunatsiaq News September 21, 2021
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Canada’s Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau walks with elder Martha Tikivik during his election campaign visit to Iqaluit, Nunavut on August 30, 2021. Nunavut again elected an NDP candidate to Parliament, but Trudeau’s Liberal’s triumphed elsewhere in Canada’s North. (Casey Lessard / Reuters)

Canada’s North will send a variety of representatives to the nation’s 44th Parliament, but none of them are poised to be from the Conservative Party.

Five ridings from Yukon to Labrador appeared to elect three Liberal candidates, a New Democrat and a Bloc Quebecois member. Not only did a Conservative not win in northern Canada, but the party only placed second in one race — in Labrador.

Monday’s results are essentially a repeat of the federal parties’ standings from the 2019 election.

For the Conservatives, this means the party has not won a seat in the North since 2011.

[What does it mean to be ‘true north strong and free?’ Canada’s elusive northern identity]

Two Liberal seats will come from the west. In the Yukon, Brendan Hanley, the former chief medical officer for the territory beat out the nest nearest challenger, the NDP’s Lisa Vollans-Leduc. Longtime Yukon Liberal MP Larry Bagnall did not run again in Monday’s election.

Meanwhile, Michael McLeod, the incumbent Liberal candidate in the Northwest Territories, notched another win.

The other Liberal candidate re-elected in the North goes east, as Yvonne Jones, an Inuk woman, was re-elected in Labrador.

In Nunavut, Lori Idlout keeps the territory in the NDP’s hands. After Mumilaaq Qaqqaq decided not run for re-election, Idlout defeated Liberal candidate and former MLA Pat Angnakak.

Sylvie Bérubé, of the Bloc Québécois, won the sprawling Quebec riding that includes Nunavik as well as areas further south.

When the 44th Parliament assembles in Ottawa, the issues the northern candidates championed will be clear as well: housing, climate change, health care and reconciliation. Though these issues are popular talking points throughout the country, they carry particular prominence in Canada’s North.