Conservatives, Liberals duke it out for Fredericton riding

Fredericton voters have keptcandidates on their toes on election night.

Liberal Jenica Atwinand ConservativeAndrea Johnson have beenneck-and-neck throughout the night and into the morning.

The two candidates have been trading off first and second place sometimes by only 100 or so votes.

More than 2,000 local mail-in ballots won't even be counted until Tuesday, so it's possible a result won't be clear when people wake up Tuesday morning.

The Fredericton riding has drawn a lot of attention this federal election because Atwin, who made history as a winning candidate for the Green Party in 2019, switched to the Liberals three months ago.

"We've come through quite a journey together," she said as she addressed a crowd of about 40 people ather headquarters in downtown Fredericton on Monday night.

She thanked supporters for the their contributions to her campaign.

"I'm reminded every day that I made the right choice to join the Liberal Party of Canada."

• Meet the Fredericton candidates looking for your vote in the 2021 election

In the 2019 election, Fredericton claimed the first Green seat outside of British Columbia.

Atwin said at the time that her moveto the Liberals took a lot of thought, advice and guidance from others. But ultimately, she wanted to make sure her community had "what it needs."

Johnson said she's not surprised the race against Atwin has been close.

"In 2019 it was tight," Johnson said. "There were a lot of factors into play this time that weren't in play last time."

Greens land in 4th place

Atwin's former party, the Greens, were trailing in fourth place late in the night,behind the NDP, represented by Shawn Oldenburg.

"We ran a good campaign," Green candidate Nicole O'Byrne said. "We ran a positive campaign, and it just didn't go our way this evening."

She said the Green Party has been in disarray for several months, and Green Leader Annamie Paul did not campaign in the riding.

"It was something we were just not able to overcome as a local campaign," O'Byrnesaid.

JenSmith ran as an Independent, Brandon Kirby for the Libertarian Party of Canada andJune Patterson ran for the Communist Party of Canada.