The federal riding of Terrebonne in Quebec has gone from the Liberals’ win column back to the Bloc Québécois after a postelection vote validation process.
Bloc candidate Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné, who had represented the riding since 2021, said in a social media post that she came out with a lead of 44 votes and that a judicial recount will take place.
“For someone to be officially elected, you have to wait until the end of this process,” Sinclair-Desgagné wrote in French. “I hope to have the honour of representing Terrebonne again in the coming years.”
Elections Canada’s validated results indicate that Sinclair-Desgagné received 23,340 votes, while Liberal candidate Tatiana Auguste received 23,296.
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The preliminary results had Auguste up by 35 votes.
Matthew McKenna, spokesperson for Elections Canada, said the returning officer finished the validation process Thursday afternoon.
He said the validation process involves a returning officer examining the record of votes counted at polling stations to catch and correct any data entry or calculation errors in a riding.
McKenna said a recount happens automatically if the difference in votes between the first and second-place candidates is within 1/1000 of the total number of votes received.
Elections Canada’s validated results indicate that 60,204 valid votes were cast in the riding and 903 ballots were rejected. Preliminary results said there were 60,130 valid votes.
Mathieu Traversy, mayor of the city of Terrebonne, congratulated Sinclair-Desgagné and said it would be a pleasure to continue collaborating with her. He said he saluted Auguste for her commitment to the campaign.
The seat count for the parties is now 168 for the Liberals and 23 for the Bloc.