Judge orders recount in Newfoundland district after last month’s provincial election

ST. JOHN’S — A judge has ordered a recount in a Newfoundland and Labrador electoral district following the province’s general election last month.

The provincial Liberals asked for judicial recounts in three districts narrowly won by Progressive Conservatives in the Oct. 14 vote.

Provincial Supreme Court Justice Alphonsus Faour dismissed two of those requests on Friday, citing a lack of evidence. He granted one, however, in the Paradise-Topsail district near St. John’s, where incumbent Progressive Conservative candidate Paul Dinn had been declared the winner over Liberal Dan Bobbett by 102 votes.

The margin represents about 1.6 per cent of the roughly 6,300 votes counted in the district.

If the recount flips the results, Premier Tony Wakeham’s Progressive Conservative government will lose its one-seat majority in the legislature.

“I find it kind of ironic, actually, that of the three applications, the one with the largest gap is the one which provided sufficient evidence to justify a recount,” Faour told a St. John’s courtroom on Friday.

In the other two districts, which are in rural parts of the province, the Liberal candidates lost by 18 and 64 votes.

The Progressive Conservatives won 21 of 40 seats in the legislature last month, ending 10 years of Liberal governments in the province. It was a close race: the Tories won 44.4 per cent of votes cast, compared with 43.4 per cent for the Liberals.

Newfoundland and Labrador election law says ridings with a margin of victory of 10 votes or less are subject to automatic recounts. Candidates or electors can also request recounts, but they must convince a judge that election officials made mistakes.

Faour said an affidavit from a scrutineer in the Paradise-Topsail district convinced him a recount was warranted. The scrutineer said she saw several ballots on which voters had circled the candidate’s name instead of putting a mark next to it. In some cases, those ballots were rejected, she said. In others, they were counted.

The Progressive Conservatives said the party is eager to swear in its members in the districts where recounts were rejected.

“We are optimistic that after the recount is complete for Topsail-Paradise, we will have all of our caucus sworn in and ready to go for the next sitting of the House of Assembly,” said spokesperson Ashley Politi in an email.

The recount is set to begin next week.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 14, 2025.

Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press