Grande Prairie—Mackenzie MP-Elect Chris Warkentin may have walked away with a pretty convincing win in Monday’s federal election, the soon-to-be six-term Member of Parliament fell short of the record-setting margin of victory he achieved in 2019.
According to Elections Canada, with 239 of 239 polls and approximately 95 per cent of mail-in-ballots reported, Warkentin received 68.4 per cent, or 36,358 of a possible 53,178 votes. The final tally for Warkentin was a drop of approximately 16 per cent from his record-setting of 84.2 percent of eligible voters in 2019.
The next closest candidate in 2021, the NDP’s Jennifer Villebrun, saw 6,462 ballots cast in her favour, or 12.2 per cent. The only other candidate who received over 10 per cent of the vote was the PPC’s Shawn McLean, with 5,412 votes, worth 10.2 per cent.
The other three candidates from the Liberal, Maverick, and Rhinosaurus parties took home 4.6, 4.1 and 0.6 per cent of the final vote respectively. Since first being elected to office in 2006, MP-Elect Warkentin has never received below 56 per cent of eligible vote support.