MOOSE JAW -- Tom Lukiwski has walked away with a definitive victory in the Moose Jaw-Lake Centre-Lanigan riding, keeping the riding for the Conservative Party.
After winning with over 23,000 votes in 2015, Lukiwski gained over 7,000 votes this time around as he captured over 70 per cent of the vote in a win over NDP candidate Talon Regent, Liberal candidate Cecilia Melanson, Green Party candidate Gillian Walker and People’s Party candidate Chey Craik.
Lukiwski says he was surprised by the level of support he received.
“Obviously I would have taken anything, if I would have won by one vote, it would have been satisfying for me,” he said. “To win by this large of an amount says a couple of things, number one overwhelming support for the Conservative message, overwhelming support for the oil and gas sector and almost a complete repudiation of the once great NDP Party [in Moose Jaw].”
While he’s pleased with his results, Lukiwski said he’s disappointed with how the election turned out nationally.
“It looks very much at this point in time that Saskatchewan and Alberta may be entirely blue, entirely Conservative, and that has consequences,” he said. “We’ll see within hours of the election being finalized, there’s going to be calls for separation from some corners in our two provinces and that concerns me greatly, but it just shows the level of alienation that people out West feel.”
Regent was a rookie candidate in the election. He says regardless of what happened, he’s happy with the experience that he gained.
“Certainly not the results that we were hoping for, but absolutely, my team and I ran as good as campaign as anyone could have hoped to run and so we certainly have lessons that we can learn from next time,” Regent said.
This will be Lukiwski’s sixth term in Parliament and his second representing the Moose Jaw-Lake Centre-Lanigan riding.
