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Canada Votes 2008

Results, Ridings and Candidates

Central Nova

2008 Results

Central Nova
Party Candidate Votes Status
Updated: Nov. 7, 2008 5:00 PM EST 217/217 polls
CON Peter MacKay 18,239 Elected
GRN Elizabeth May 12,620
NDP Louise Lorefice 7,657
CHP Michael MacKay 427
CAP Paul Kemp 196

Unofficial results were updated at the time shown following judicial recounts in six ridings. For more recent results, visit Elections Canada. The CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external sites. External links will open in a new window.

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This riding consists of Pictou and Antigonish counties and part of Guysborough County. It includes St. Mary's, New Glasgow, Antigonish, Trenton, Stellarton and Westville, as well as several native reserves. It also includes Halifax County, west through Sheet Harbour to East Jeddore."

St. Francis Xavier University is in the riding. Retail trade, manufacturing and government services are the major employers. The average family income is $63,917 and unemployment is 9.8 per cent.

In the 2006 census, 96 per cent of the population cited English as their mother tongue. The total immigrant population is slightly more than three per cent.

In 2004, the riding became Central Nova. It combines 91 per cent of Pictou-Antigonish-Guysborough and five per cent of Sackville-Musquodoboit Valley-Eastern Shore in the southwest. Pictou-Antigonish-Guysborough riding was created from 67 per cent of Central Nova and 46 per cent of Cape Breton-Highlands-Canso.

Population: 72,966 (2006 census; a decrease of 2% since 2001)

Political History

Conservative incumbent Peter MacKay took this riding in the 2006 election, defeating NDP Alexis MacDonald by 3,273 votes. MacKay is the minister of foreign affairs and minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.

MacKay had no trouble holding on to his seat in 2004, when he beat the next most popular candidate, MacDonald, by nearly 6,000 votes. MacKay was elected leader of the PCs in 2003. The PCs were replaced by the Conservative Party of Canada and MacKay did not run for the leadership.

In the former Central Nova riding, Liberal H.B. McCulloch was MP from 1935 until the 1957 election. PC Russell MacEwan won in Pictou/Central Nova from 1957 to 1968. PC Elmer MacKay, Peter MacKay's father, won the 1971 byelection and then won four general elections. He was appointed minister of regional economic expansion in the Joe Clark government and resigned in 1983 to create a vacancy for new Tory Leader Brian Mulroney.

Mulroney won in the 1983 byelection by 11,024 votes, but in the 1984 election he ran in Manicougan, Que. Elmer MacKay won again in 1984 and 1988. He served as solicitor general, minister of national revenue, minister of public works, minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and minister responsible for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. In 1993, Liberal Roseanne Skoke won this riding.

  • 1997, 2000, 2004, 2006 - PC, CON