The original version of this story incorrectly implied that the COVID-19 Pandemic ended, when the actual intention of the statement was to highlight the end of public health measures surrounding the COVID-19 Pandemic that were in place during the last federal election.
The federal riding of South Shore—St. Margarets, in line with a global wave of wins for political centrists, has elected the Liberal Party of Canada’s Jessica Fancy-Landry.
Fancy-Landry’s win came after an unprecedented election campaign that, according to the polling aggregator 338Canada website, went from Conservative Party incumbent Rick Perkins having a safe hold on re-election in February to a neck-and-neck race with the Liberal candidate in March.
Fancy-Landry finished the election with 54.9% of all valid votes, while Perkins received 41.1%.
| Federal Election Results for South Shore—St. Margarets, 2015 to 2025 | ||||
| 2025 Candidates [1] | 2025 Votes [1] | 2021 Votes [2] | 2019 Votes [3] | 2015 Votes [4] |
| *Jessica Fancy-Landry* [Liberal Party] | *27,831*[54.9%] | 18,575[37.1%] | *21,886*[41.7%] | *30,045*[56.9%] |
| Rick Perkins[Conservative Party] | 20,864[41.1%] | *20,454*[40.9%] | 14,744[28.1%] | 11,905[22.6%] |
| Mark Embrett[Green Party] | 818[1.6 %] | 1,434[2.9%] | 6,070[11.6%] | 1,534[2.9%] |
| Patrick Shea Boyd[People’s Party] | 698[1.4%] | – | 667[1.3%] | – |
| Hayden Henderson[Independent] | 500[1.0%] | – | Steven Foster376 [0.7%] Shawn McMahon165 [0.3%] | 257[0.5%] |
| – Candidate Withdrawn – Brendan Moser[New Democratic Party] | – | 9,541[19.1%] | 8,361[15.9%] | 8,883[16.8%] |
| Veterans Coalition Party | – | – | 125[0.2%] | – |
| Christian Heritage Party | – | – | 124[0.2%] | – |
| Communist Party | – | – | – | 151[0.3%] |
| Rejected ballots | 376[0.7%] | 400 | 439 | 226 |
| Total Electors | 70,205 | 80,138 | 78,470 | 76,181 |
| Voter Turnout | 51,087[72.7%] | 50,404[62.9%] | 52,957[67.5%] | 53,001[69.6%] |
| Did Not Vote | 19,118[27.3%] | 29,734[37.1%] | 25,513[32.5%] | 23,180[30.4%] |
| [1] Elections Canada. (2025). Results for South Shore—St. Margarets[2] Elections Canada. (2021). Results for South Shore—St. Margarets[3] Elections Canada. (2019). Results for South Shore—St. Margarets[4] Elections Canada. (2015). Results for South Shore—St. Margarets | ||||
The Perkins campaign was hampered by three critical factors: the candidate’s unpopularity outside the right, the collapse of the left, and the sudden public disdain for Trump-like populist rhetoric.
Perkins’ loss follows four years as an MP, during which time he expressed polarizing statements on social media and in communications with constituents about topics such as the Mi’kmaq livelihood fishery and 2SLGBTQ+-inclusive education in schools.
Perkins, furthermore, mailed voters two newspaper-looking campaign pamphlets calling itself “South Shore News” at a time when Canada was experiencing newsroom closures and the proliferation of misinformation and disinformation on social media.
Perkins’ communications therefore likely alienated many centrist and leftwing voters from voting Conservative.
The campaign was also effectively reduced to a two-way race when NDP candidate Brendan Mosher, just before the candidate registration deadline, announced on Facebook that he was stepping-down with no replacement.
Perkins was, most significantly, hampered by voter associations between the Conservative Party’s right-wing populist messaging and the tariffs imposed on Canadian exports by the Trump Regime in the U.S.
Fancy-Landry, meanwhile, managed to associate herself as a rookie candidate with the Liberal Party’s popular new leader Mark Carney. She did this without making any apparent connections to the unpopular former Liberal candidate and Fisheries Minister Bernadet Jordan.
The 2025 campaign was also the first federal election since the lifting of public health measures around the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 election took place during the height of the pandemic and had a notably lower voter turnout than previous years.
The combination of the trade war and the lifting of pandemic safety measures seems to have increased the voter turnout to a level of 72.2%, which is the highest it has been for the past four elections.
Fancy-Landry now faces the task of representing a riding that election results suggest has become more polarized.
She has also told the Barnacle in our candidate survey that she is committed to achieving: net-zero carbon emissions in Canada by 2050, defending human rights in Gaza; supporting a new electoral system based on proportional representation; increasing funding for social housing; and recognizing Mi’kmaq treaty rights to operate a livelihood fishery.
Dr. Christy Kelly-Bisson is a political economist and garlic farmer living in Sulieweykitk (New Germany), Lunenburg County. You can follow them on Bluesky at @garlicbreath644.bsky.social
You can read the original article at The Lunenburg Barnacle
