Though it was a quiet night for the most part at Sudbury and Nickel Belt NDP headquarters, it was all but quiet in the Sudbury riding polls.
An election night still in the midst of a pandemic meant that the celebrations were once again muted, with little fanfare as the polls closed, but for the cheers that erupted after a countdown to the clock striking 9:30 p.m.
The moment the polls closed the team took their place in a war room of sorts, but one that was blocked from the media present. Isolated from gathered media by (fittingly) an orange wall, campaign staff watched the polls come in.
Though the evening began slowly, a cheer erupted at around 10 p.m. when Carol Hughes, candidate for Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing, was declared the winner, holding the seat for what will be her fifth term.
But then, the polls for Sudbury began to come in, and everyone at NDP Sudbury and Nickel Belt headquarters held their breath.
The race between Verrelli for the NDP and Vivivane Lapointe, the Liberal Candidate for Sudbury, moved up in what seemed like a one at a time, vote over vote race, with one candidate holding the lead for only a moment only to lose it the next.
With the night’s count projected to go on for sometime, Verrelli made a short appearance for the media present in which she thanked her team and supporters, before heading back to a non-public event with her staff — before the final results were in.
“It’s been quite the ride, every day has been an adventure,” said Verrelli to reporters. “I’ve been looking forward to coming into the office, to knocking on doors, talking to people, I’ve loved every minute of it. I’ve had such a great team behind me, and my family supporting me every step of the way, My former students that are part of my team, everyone, it has been great.”
The Canadian Press declared Liberal Viviane Lapointe the winner in Sudbury when her lead climbed to two percentage points over Verrelli, though not all polls had reported.
