Recount for Terra Nova-The Peninsulas scheduled for Monday
Newly redrawn riding is tightest election race in Canada
A date has been set for a recount that will decide the outcome of a rural Newfoundland and Labrador riding — the tightest ongoing federal election race in Canada.
The application for a judicial review for the riding of Terra Nova-The Peninsulas was made on Friday morning at a court hearing in Grand Bank, which Supreme Court Justice Garrett Handrigan approved.
The recount will take place at St. Gabriel's Hall in Marystown, starting on Monday at 9 a.m. NT. The process is expected to take two or three days.
The recount determines whether Liberal Anthony Germain maintains his seat, or if Conservative candidate Jonathan Rowe will flip the riding blue.
Lawyers for Elections Canada, the Liberals and Conservatives set the details of the recount in court on Friday. They argued over who would pay for lunch, how many tables will be set up for the recount and who can be in the room.
On April 29, a day after the federal election, it was announced Germain, a former teacher and longtime CBC broadcaster, had defeated Rowe by just 12 votes — the closest margin of victory of any riding in Canada.
A judicial recount happens automatically if the difference between the leading two candidates is less than one one-thousandth of the total votes cast, according to Elections Canada.
Germain received 19,704 votes to Rowe's 19,692. The small margin triggered the recount.
As the votes were being tallied on election day, Rowe held the lead for most of the evening, but the situation became a toss-up by the time Elections Canada hit pause on the count in the early morning hours on Tuesday.
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