Federal election: Newfoundland riding flips to Conservatives after judicial recount

Elections Canada announced Friday that Conservative Jonathan Rowe will represent the Terra Nova—The Peninsulas riding in Parliament. A judicial recount in the riding determined Rowe defeated Liberal Anthony Germain by just 12 votes.

The result reverses the first tally of the ballots after last month’s federal election, which had Germain ahead by 12 votes. It also gives the Conservatives another seat in the House of Commons, and puts the Liberals three seats behind the threshold for a majority government.

Rowe is an engineer with experience in mining and oil and gas. His win earns the Conservatives a third seat in the province, while the Liberals have four. It also underscores a surge in support for the Conservatives across the province, where the party held just one seat heading into the vote on April 28.

The recount in the riding began May 12 in Marystown, N.L., a town of roughly 5,200 people about 185 kilometres southwest of the provincial capital of St. John’s. It was one of four called after the election last month, and it was the last to produce a decision.

Elections Canada officials have said the recount resulted in roughly 1,000 disputed ballots, all of which had to be debated by lawyers and carefully considered by provincial Supreme Court Justice Garrett Handrigan, who oversaw the review.

Rowe’s win nets the Conservatives 144 seats in Ottawa and leaves the Liberals with 169. The Bloc Quebecois has 22, the NDP has seven and the Green Party has one.

Terra Nova-The Peninsulas covers a vast region of eastern Newfoundland, stretching from the Bonavista Peninsula and surrounding area on the island’s northeast coast to the tip of the Burin Peninsula along the southern coast. It includes fishing communities, tourism destinations and small towns where many people work in the oil industry, whether at home in the province or away in Alberta.

The riding is home to more than 76,000 people, 41,670 of whom cast a vote in the April 28 election. Officials have said every single ballot was recounted.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 23, 2025.