On a night when the federal Liberal Party managed to maintain their minority government status in the House of Commons, they swept all three seats in the east end including in Orléans where Liberal incumbent Marie-France Lalonde has captured 65.6 per cent of the vote with 237 of the 253 having reported their results as of Tuesday morning.

If Lalonde maintains her level of support, it will be the highest percentage of votes received by the winning candidate since Eugene Bellemare captured 61.95 per cent of the vote in 1993.

In terms of sheer numbers, Lalonde has so far received 32,479 votes while her Conservative opponent, Steve Mansour, has received 14,496 votes. It was the lowest number of votes cast for the Conservatives in Orléans since 2000 when Marc-André Blair received just 8,738 votes.

As disappointing as the Conservative vote was in Orléans, the NDP suffered an even bigger setback garnering just 1,444 votes. That’s a far cry from the last General Election when they NDP candidate, Jessica Joanis, received 10,983 votes.

Elsewhere in the east end, Liberal incumbent Mona Fortier captured an even larger percentage of the vote in Ottawa-Vanier-Gloucester, which now includes Blackburn Hamlet, than Lalonde did in Orléans.

Fortier has received 44,101 votes with 256 of 257 polls reporting. That equates to 67.2 per cent of the total votes cast in the riding. The Conservative candidate received 14,195 votes, while the NDP candidate received 4,939 votes.

It’s the same picture in Prescott-Russell-Cumberland which now includes Cardinal Creek Village and the part of Carlsbad Springs north of Hwy 417.

Liberal candidate Giovanna Mingarelli has received 54.6 per cent of the votes in the riding with all 264 polls having reported the results. The Conservative candidate, Julie Seguin, received 40.4 per cent of the vote and the NDP candidate, Ryder Finlay, received just 2.4 per cent.

The riding, which was formerly Glengarry-Prescott-Russell, had been held by Liberal MP François Drouin for the past two terms.

Nationally the Liberals have won or are leading in 168 ridings, while the Conservatives have won or are leading in 144 ridings, the Bloc Quebecois are doing the same in 23 ridings, the NDP in 7 ridings and the Green Party in only one riding.

The results mean the Liberals will hold to power in the House of Commons, however, whether or not they will have a majority still remains to be seen as several results are still to close to call with a number of votes still to be counted. If things go the Liberals way they could pick up as many as eight additional seats one from the NDP, two from the Bloc Quebecois and five from the Conservatives.

One riding where a recount won’t be necessary is Carleton riding in the west end of the Ottawa where the Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre, lost his seat to Liberal challenger Bruce Fanjoy by 8,793 votes.

Despite no longer having his seat in the House of Commons, Poilievre has pledged to stay on as leader.

The biggest story of night, besides the Liberal victory, is the massive drop in support for the NDP which lost 17 of the 24 seats they held in the previous Parliament. The Bloc Quebecois also suffered dearly, losing 10 of the 33 seats it had held.

If the results remain unchanged after the final votes are tallied, the Liberals will have picked up 20 seats and the Conservatives 25 seats.

The Liberals have also won the popular vote with 43.5 per cent of eligible voters having voted for them, while 41.4 per cent voted for the Conservatives. The NDP have received just 6.3 per cent of the vote.

By comparison the Liberals received 32.6 percentage of the vote in 2021, the Conservatives received 33.8 per cent and the NDP received 17.8 per cent.