David Myles wins for Liberals in Fredericton-Oromocto
Well-known singer-songwriter was endorsed by Premier Susan Holt
The Fredericton-Oromocto federal election results were music to the ears of Liberal newcomer David Myles.
The Juno Award-winning singer-songwriter and former CBC radio host defeated Conservative candidate and former Progressive Conservative MLA Brian Macdonald, with more than 61 per cent of the votes, compared to about 32 per cent, as of around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, with 173 of 175 polls reported.
"This is entirely surreal, my friends," he told supporters at the Crowne Plaza on Monday night.
"Ottawa is beyond a dream for me," he said as they chanted, "David! David! David!"
Myles, 43, a married father of two, said he decided to join the race because he has travelled across the country for the past 20 years and believes in Canada and the ability of Canadians "to work together in spite of our differences."
After five weeks of knocking on more than 17,000 doors and lots of conversations — "If you know me, you know I love a good chat" — he believes more than ever, he said.
"I'm more filled with hope."
Premier Susan Holt had endorsed Myles, a long-time friend, as the Liberal candidate for the riding, which saw the closest race in the province in the last federal election in 2021.
Previous Liberal MP Jenica Atwin won with 37 per cent of votes, narrowly beating the 35.9 per cent of votes won by Conservative candidate Andrea Johnson.
Atwin, originally elected as a Green MP in 2019, announced in January she wouldn't run again.
The riding covers Fredericton, Oromocto, New Maryland, parts of rural Hanwell and three First Nations.
It includes 5th Canadian Division Support Base Gagetown, which directly employs 6,000 service members and 1,000 civilians.
Liberal Leader Mark Carney has said he'd bring defence spending up to two per cent of Canada's GDP — in line with the NATO benchmark — by 2030.
Myles believes voters in the riding connected with the leadership of Carney.
"In my experience at the doors, people really responded to Mark Carney as being the leader of the party and to negotiate with [U.S. President] Donald Trump. That came up a lot," he said.
"So I think it had a lot to do with the leader and hopefully something to do with me too as a person that people know and they respect."
In addition, Myles thinks Carney was able to win over more moderate Conservative voters in the riding. He believes voters who might traditionally be right of centre were attracted to Carney.
"I think there was a lot of people who would have fallen into the Progressive Conservative category that liked the way that Mark Carney was speaking. But I do think we definitely gained people from the Red Tories, or the Progressive Conservative past that don't really relate to conservatism nationally."
Myles also beat Green Pam Allen-LeBlanc, who ran for the Green Party in Fredericton-York in the 2024 provincial election, New Democrat Nicki Lyons-Macfarlane, who was the NDP candidate for Fredericton South-Silverwood in the 2024 provincial election, and Dominic Cardy of the Canadian Future Party, who was the leader for the New Brunswick NDP in 2014, moved to the Progressive Conservative Party in 2017, where he was elected as Fredericton-Hanwell MLA and served in Blaine Higgs's cabinet, before he resigned in 2022 and served as an Independent until 2024.
Other candidates included June Patterson of the Communist Party, who was the candidate from Fredericton for the Communist Party of Canada in the 2021 federal election, Brandon Ellis of the Centrist Party, and Heather Michaud of the People's Party of Canada.
With files from Silas Brown