Now, this is a close election! Newfoundland and Labrador held its provincial election on 16 May. The result was the Liberal Party winning exactly half the seats–apparently. One of their losses is by five votes. Not five percentage points. Five votes. The apparent winner is the NDP candidate. There is likely to be a recount.
If the result holds, the NDP has won three seats in the 40-seat assembly, up from two in the previous election. The Liberals had 31 seats last time, so this is some electoral rebuke, even if it ends up back with a majority. The Progressive Conservative Party, which won 15 seats, has not conceded defeat, and the leader has said he will be calling on the NDP and two independents (who are ex-Liberals) to consider a possible bid for power if the Liberals do not win their 21st seat.
The Liberal vote total percentage was 43.9, PCs 42.6, NDP 6.3.
A snap election, when the four-year term ran until November. A brand-new NDP leader chosen March 5, so new she had time to find only 14 candidates for 40 seats. Her two incumbent MLAs were not running again. But look what happened: three NDP MLAs in a minority government House!
Not that it means all that much, but it was a snap election only in the sense that moved early before summer and the federal election in the fall.