PCs increase their riding count in Cape Breton

The Progressive Conservativesincreased their hold onCape Breton's ridings in Tuesday's election,gaining one seat.

In the last provincial election in 2021, the Progressive Conservatives won five out of Cape Breton's eight seats, the Liberals two and the NDP one. This time around, two PC MLAsKeith Bain and Allan MacMasterdid not reofferin Victoria-The Lakes and Inverness.

The PCs were on trackto win in six ridings as of late Tuesday night.NDP incumbent Kendra Coombesheld on to her seat in Cape Breton Centre-Whitney Pier, and Liberal Derek Mombourquettewas leading PC candidate Brian MacArthurin Sydney-Membertou.

Northside-Westmount

Progressive Conservative Fred Tilleywaselected inNorthside-Westmount,holding on to his seat.

Tilley was elected as a Liberal in 2021, but crossed the floor to join the PCsin the days before the election was called. His opponent, Liberal Danny Laffin, also has a history of switching parties.

"Of course some folks were a little upset with [me crossing the floor], others were jubilant," said Tilley in an interview with CBC News before results came in.

"For me, it is about being a constituency MLA.What I heard on the doors mostly was,'Fred, we don't care if you're red, blue, green or whatever colour,'" he said.

The NDPfieldedKatelyn Armstrong.

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Victoria-The Lakes

Voters in Victoria-The Lakes had the longest ballot of any riding, with five candidates vying to represent the area. The riding includes the Eskasoni and WagmatcookFirst Nations.

Dianne Timmins, a new candidate for the PCs,held on tothe seat for the party.

The former constituency assistant forKeith Bainran againstLiberalStephen MacAskill,NDP candidate Samuel Stirling, the Greens' Adrianna MacKinnon, andIndependent candidate Stemer MacLeod,who has run in every provincial election since 1993.

Inverness

The riding of Inverness has gone blue since 1999,even through elections with major Progressive Conservativelosses.

The trend continued Tuesday as PC candidate Kyle MacQuarriewas elected, defeating the NDP's Joanna Clark and Liberal Jaime Beaton.

MacQuarrie, a high school educator, was named the party's candidateafter Allan MacMaster announced he wouldn't reoffer, choosing instead to run for the federal Conservatives.

The riding includes Chticamp. TheNova Scotia Supreme Courtrecently ruledthe electoral boundaries in the Acadian area should be re-evaluated after an Acadian group argued it should be its own riding due to thecultural identity of the people who live there.

Richmond

The riding of Richmond is one of four protected ridings. The boundaries have been redrawn to match the county lines and increase the odds of electing an Acadian member to the Legislative Assembly.

Progressive ConservativeTrevor Boudreau was first elected in 2021 and held on to his seat in the legislature Tuesday.

Boudreau said he knocked on 2,000 doors and heard frompeople who were concerned about health care, housing, affordability, cellphone coverageand roads.

"Those are the things that matter to people and there's work to do on all of those fronts, but they believe and we believe that we are the party to do that," he said.

The NDP candidate was Marc Currie, while the Liberals ran Rochelle Heudes.

Cape Breton Centre-Whitney Pier

New Democrat Kendra Coombes won the riding of Cape Breton-Whitney Pier. She was first elected ina 2020 byelection and was the party's only MLA on the Island when the election was called.

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"The first priority for me is startdealing with the work I had to stop because of thiselection," Coombes said in an interview with CBC News.

Coombes will be part of the Official Opposition, and said she is focused on the issues of affordability, health care, housing and coastline protection.

ShefacedPC Darren O'Quinn, a recently re-elected CBRM councillor, and Liberal Joleen Magliaro.

Cape Breton East

Brian Comer wasre-elected for the Progressive Conservatives. He was first elected to represent Cape Breton East in a 2019 byelection.

Comer faced Liberal Joe Ward, who finished second in last month's CBRM mayoral race, andNDP candidate Isabelle Lalonde.

Glace Bay-Dominion

PC incumbentJohn White was re-elected to represent Glace Bay-Dominion. He won the seat in a close race in 2021.

White ran against the NDP's Kathy Chapman and Liberal DavidAlexander MacLeod.

Sydney-Membertou

Liberal Derek Mombourquettewon Sydney-Membertou in a 2015 byelection. He wasleadingProgressive Conservative Brian MacArthur, who previously owned the Cape Breton Business College, by almost400 votes as of midnight.

The NDP finished second in Sydney-Membertou inthe last election.This time, theypitchedlawyer Alison Aho to voters. This is one of two ridings on the Island where the Greens havea candidate.Steven McGrath is an IT professional.