Close Race Decides Liberal Candidate for 2015 (video, photos)

Five candidates vied for the nomination at the Miramichi - Grand Lake Liberal Nomination Convention held today the MAEA in Chatham. The standing room crowd began registering at 10 am, heard speeches at 2, and voted for an hour at 3:15 pm. Then it took 3 hours to count the ballots and declare a winner.

Recently, the Liberal Party of Canada adopted the Instant-Runoff Voting method as a means of electing candidates. Ballots are initially distributed based on each elector's first preference. If a candidate secures more than half of votes cast, that candidate wins. Otherwise, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. Ballots assigned to the eliminated candidate are recounted and assigned to those of the remaining candidates who rank next in order of preference on each ballot. This process continues until one candidate wins by obtaining more than half the votes.

Tonight, one candidate was eliminated on the first three ballots, before a clear winner was determined on the 4th ballot.

Keith Vickers suffered a set back earlier in the week when more than half of the delegates he signed up were deemed invalid because he used photocopied registration forms. Vickers only got 48 votes on the first ballot, and in his speech declared the system to be faulty, and that each signature on his forms was genuine, and that the money was not mishandled. Vickers also said that Miramichiers need a voice in Ottawa, not an Ottawa voice in Miramichi.

Vickers: link

One the second ballot, Veronique Arseneault had the lowest number of votes, so she was knocked off. Arsenault is a tireless community activist, and spoke of ways she would look to improve health care, the treatment of veterans, and boost economic development.

Arseneault: link

Adam Lordon gave an empowered speech, but had the lowest number of votes after the third ballot, and thus was out of the race. Lordon mentioned his mother's influence in his speech -- His mother Nancy passed away last week. Lordon also stressed new leadership was needed in our communities in order to revitalize the local economy and bring workers home.

Lordon: link

The final ballot came down to a choice between John McKay and Pat Finnigan. Finnigan's speech was about his achievements in business and local issues. He also vowed to paint the region liberal red, a push back against Stephen Harper's claim after the last election that the Liberal Party was going to be a thing of the past. McKay talked about his success in politics, and his wishes to do something to change the fate of the forest industry in the region.

After the first and second ballot, it looked like Finnigan and McKay were gaining about the same amount of support from the ousted candidates supporters. But Finnigan gained 173 votes from Lordon's supporters on the final ballot, while McKay only gained 55.

McKay: link

Here are the vote totals

	Spoiled	K. Vickers	V. Arseneault	A. Lordon	J. McKay	P. Finnigan
Ballot 1	17	48	174	182	240	225
Ballot 2	23	--	182	192	251	236
Ballot 3	67	--	--	262	275	282
Ballot 4	101	--	--	--	330	455 (x)

Pat Finnigan in his victory pledged to work with the other candidates to obtain victory in the next election. Finnigan was emotional in his victory speech, mentioning his family, his supporters and his mother. "Never in thousand years did I think a year ago I was going to be a candidate for MP in the next election," Finnigan said.

Finnigan's acceptance speech: link

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