Liberal Bobby Morrissey hangs onto his seat in P.E.I.'s Egmont riding

Liberal incumbent Bobby Morrissey will hold onto his seat in P.E.I.'s Egmont riding after a tight race with Conservative candidate Logan McLellan early Monday evening. 

Morrissey and McLellan were within 100 votes of each other for most of the first hour of results coming in from Elections Canada, and McLellan held a slim lead at one point. But Morrissey finally pulled ahead to win by about 2,000 votes.

With 98 of 99 polls reporting at 1:30 a.m. AT Tuesday, Morrissey had 12,337 votes compared to 10,355 for McLellan, 575 for the NDP's Carol Rybinski and 535 for Ranald MacFarlane of the Green Party.

"First, I want to thank the many members of my campaign team as well as to thank the voters of Egmont for putting their trust in me again," Morrissey told CBC News following his projected win.

The incumbent MP, who has held the riding since 2015, said he wasn't worried despite the tight race earlier in the evening.

"You have an understanding of what you're feeling on the doorsteps when you're campaigning, you have some sense," he said.

"In a federal election, you can't get everywhere, so you still have to wait until election day and until all the votes are counted. But I felt confident that the Liberal Party would emerge victorious in this riding."

Back to work tomorrow.— Bobby Morrissey

Morrissey said he had expected the Liberal Party would fare better than it did in Atlantic Canada, and said the party will have to rebuild the confidence of voters in the region during its next term under Prime Minister Mark Carney.

"Back to work tomorrow," he said.

Of the four ridings on P.E.I., Egmont is the only one that has changed hands in recent years from the Liberals to the Conservatives and back to the Liberals once more. 

The Egmont riding has been redrawn since the last federal election, and now includes the Bedeque area, as well as some areas east and southeast of Summerside that were previously part of the Malpeque riding.