NDP barely holds on to Wolseley after strong showing from Greens

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This article was published 20/04/2016 (3515 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Wolseley riding has remained NDP but it was the slimmest victory in the party’s downtown stronghold in decades.

Rob Altemeyer won the riding by 384 votes over Green Party of Manitoba candidate David Nickarz according to Elections Manitoba’s unofficial results on Wednesday morning.

Scrutineers from both NDP and the Green Party would not call it on Tuesday night with about 700 ballots left to count at midnight.

Altemeyer said he heard at 2:00 a.m. after the advance ballots were finally counted.

“It was a real nail-biter,” Altemeyer said. “But it was not unexpected. We knew it would be a different election than ever before heading in. But we ran a positive campaign”

Altemeyer had won the seat by at least 2,000 votes in the last three elections.

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The Green Party, which has come in second in Wolseley every election since 2003, just about doubled its votes in the traditionally left-leaning riding, but fell just short after a strong showing from Nickarz, a riding resident and environmentalist.

After seeing some final numbers Nickarz said this morning he has accepted that a recount is not necessary.

“We ran the best campaign we could and I am proud of what we did,” he said.

As for whether he has his sights set on 2020, he coyly said, “I’ll have to let you know.”

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca