Grande Prairie-Mackenzie Conservative MP Chris Warkentin addresses the crowd of supporters, with his family by his side, following his projected election victory on Monday night (Photo: Shaun Penner)

By Shaun Penner

Back in Office

Warkentin seeing positives in Conservative seat gains, Liberal minority

Oct 22, 2019 | 5:32 AM

It’ll be a fifth consecutive term for Chris Warkentin as the MP for the Grande Prairie area, as the Conservative incumbent cruised to a landslide victory in the Grande Prairie-Mackenzie riding on Monday night, and will return to Ottawa in the post he has held since 2006.

It wasn’t all good news though for Warkentin, as his Tories failed to secure control of the house and will serve as the official opposition to a Liberal minority government.

Though they were not able to win the election, Warkentin is still seeing it as a small victory as his party was able to gain seats in key ridings, which helped bring the Liberals down from holding a majority to having to work in a minority.

“I think what we see tonight (Monday) is, clearly, a recognition by Canadians that a Trudeau government can’t continue unrestrained,” said Warkentin. “Obviously, we are seeing Conservative members elected in higher numbers. We’re the only national party that sees an increase in seat count.”

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“Obviously, we’re going to hold this government to account.”

The Liberals will hold 157 seats, while the Conservatives will come in with 121. That’s a Conservative increase of 22 seats, while the Liberals lost 28. The New Democrats also saw losses (from 44 to 25). The Green Party saw a jump from one seat to three, while the Bloc saw the highest jump of all parties, going from four seats to 32.

Check EverythingGP’s live results map for the most up-to-date results from across the country.

With that big jump by the Bloc, Warkentin says he is prepared to try and work with any party to fight against a Liberal/NDP coalition.

“We will work on a case by case basis with parties,” said Warkentin. “We will continue to work with whatever party, to ensure that we can advance the interests of hard-working Canadians.”

The fact of Trudeau and the Grits having to work through a minority is appealing to Warkentin as well, as recent history has said to him that more change could come sooner rather than later.

“We saw it in 2004 when Harper was first elected as leader. It was a Paul Martin minority, that didn’t last very long (two years),” said Warkentin. “The next government, obviously, was a Conservative minority government.”

The Conservatives would then claim another minority in 2008, before earning a majority in 2011. The Liberals then took a majority in 2015.

Regardless of where he or his party stand in the House of Commons, Warkentin says that he only has one thing to be concerned about as he returns to Ottawa.

“My pre-occupation, my number one responsibility, I believe, is to ensure that the interests of Peace Country residents, Peace Country families, are represented in Ottawa,” said Warkentin.

“That will continue to be my work and my pre-occupation.”

To hear Warkentin’s remarks to his crowd of supporters on Monday night at the Holiday Inn, check out the video below: