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Opinion polls during the election suggested voters on the East Coast were ready to deliver a stay-the-course message to the governing Liberals, who have dominated the region since 2015, when the party under Justin Trudeau won all 32 seats.

But the Liberals’ grip on power slipped over the years under Trudeau’s leadership, and by the time his replacement Mark Carney called the election last month, the party had dipped to 23 seats, the Tories had risen to eight, and one seat — a Halifax riding previously held by a Liberal — was vacant.

In Newfoundland, The Canadian Press decision desk declared the Tories elected in two seats early Monday evening, one of which was taken from the Liberals. The Long Range Mountains riding in western Newfoundland had been held by former Liberal cabinet minister Gudie Hutchings since 2015, but she stepped down in January. Conservative Carol Anstey, a real estate agent, defeated Liberal Don Bradshaw, a former broadcaster.

The Tories held the redrawn riding of Central Newfoundland with incumbent Clifford Small, an entrepreneur in the fishing and restaurant industries, defeating family physician and political rookie Lynette Powell.

The Liberals had held onto three of their ridings in the province while the other two were still undecided.

The Conservatives — led by Pierre Poilievre — had been expected to hold on to some, if not all of their seats in the region, while the New Democrats under Jagmeet Singh were hoping for a surprise breakthrough in Newfoundland or Nova Scotia.

Political observers say Poilievre’s aggressive, populist style of leadership was a tough sell in Atlantic Canada, where traditional Progressive Conservatives — including Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston — largely shunned the federal Tory leader.

Before the election race, Poilievre focused his attacks on the Liberal carbon pricing policy, affordability issues and Trudeau’s deep unpopularity. But there was a slower-than-expected shift in strategy after U.S. President Donald Trump started threatening Canada’s sovereignty in January.

At that time, the Conservatives’ popularity started to wane as voters turned their attention to Carney’s claims that as a former central banker, he should be the one to defend Canada from Trump’s mercurial trade war.

However, the Conservatives’ relentlessly negative campaigning, highlighted by Poilievre’s repeated references to a “lost Liberal decade,” seemed to be resonating in some of the Atlantic ridings they did not already hold. 

Still, Carney’s focus on dealing with the economic chaos unleashed by Trump is paying dividends for the Liberals in Atlantic Canada, where throughout the campaign their approval ratings were higher than in any other region.

During the last week of the race, Carney travelled to Upper Onslow, N.S., where he told supporters that Trump was “trying to break us as a nation because they want to own us.” He compared the ongoing trade war to a hockey game, saying: “When someone else drops the gloves, we know what to do.”

Poilievre painted a bleak picture of Canada’s future when he stopped in Halifax for a campaign event last week, blaming the situation on nearly 10 years of Liberal government. He cited a Policy Horizons Canada study that suggested that by 2040, Canadians might lose faith in traditional notions of “moving up” the social and economic ladder. He also said many Canadians already feel desperate, unable to afford a home or buy a car.

The Tory leader’s pitch for change was a reminder of how he had spent much of the past two years atop the polls by relentlessly slamming Trudeau’s Liberals and insisting that “Canada is broken.”

In Nova Scotia, one of the key ridings to watch is Central Nova, where the incumbent — former Liberal cabinet minister Sean Fraser — was almost a no-show. He had decided not to run in December but changed his mind last month after receiving a phone call from Carney.

As he awaited the results, Conservative campaign manager Tyler Cameron, said Fraser’s decision to re-enter the race led to a  “yo-yo of a campaign.” But Cameron said the strategy for Tory candidate Brycen Jenkins, a 27-year-old real estate agent, did not change.

Cameron said residents across the riding said their top concerns were U.S. tariffs, affordability, housing and Nova Scotia’s tumultuous lobster fishery. “Enforcement of the lobster fishery, it is a big issue,” Cameron said.

The sprawling riding in northeastern Nova Scotia was a Tory stronghold in the past, having been held by former prime minister Brian Mulroney, and former federal cabinet ministers Elmer MacKay and his son, Peter MacKay.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 28, 2025.

— With files from Sarah Smellie in St. John’s, N.L., Lyndsay Armstrong in New Glasgow, N.S., and Hina Alam in Fredericton.