Canada’s Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is projected to win a crucial by-election in the province of Alberta to secure a new Parliament seat after losing his constituency in the last general election.
With final ballots still being counted, Poilievre leads with 80.4% of the vote in the rural riding of Battle River-Crowfoot, according to preliminary results from Canada’s electoral commission.
“Getting to know the people in this region has been the privilege of my life,” he told a rapturous crowd on Monday.
His projected victory comes four months after his party was defeated by Mark Carney’s Liberals and he lost the Ottawa-area seat he had held for two decades to Liberal Bruce Fanjoy.
In this by-election, Poilievre faced a record 214 candidates, many of whom are associated with a protest group seeking electoral reform.
It is the second time the group has targeted Poilievre in a campaign. Voters were asked to fill out a write-in ballot due to the unusually high number of candidates.
Poilievre’s projected win will allow the 46-year-old to return to the House of Commons for the autumn sitting after his April defeat.
The special election was called in June after former Conservative member of Parliament Damian Kurek stepped aside to let Poilievre run.
Poilievre thanked Kurek for his “gracious sacrifice” in his victory speech.
Alberta is a Conservative stronghold – Kurek, the former MP for the riding, had won with 83% of the vote. In the past, the riding was won by Conservatives with at least 70% of the vote.
The Conservative leader faced pushback from some locals, including independent candidate Bonnie Critchley, who had accused him of seeking to win the riding as “nothing more than a means to an end”.
Poilievre defended his campaign, telling the Calgary Herald newspaper that he had canvassed like he was “one vote behind”.
“I believe in humility and earning people’s trust,” he said.
Poilievre now faces a mandatory leadership review in January, where Conservative party members will vote on whether he should stay on as leader at their upcoming national convention.