Saskatchewan has 2 of 5 closest races in Canadian election

There were nail-biters all over Canadaon Mondaynight, but two of the five closest races were in Saskatchewan.

The NDP's Georgina Jolibois won Desneth-Missinippi-Churchill River against Liberal candidate Lawrence Joseph by a margin of 70 votes.

The northern Saskatchewan riding was the second-closest race in Canada. The incumbent in the seat wasConservative Rob Clarke, who came in third.

Well-known candidates

Jolibois is the mayor of La Loche, andhad a high public profile during the summer forest fires. Joseph is a former chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations.

The five closest races with the margin of victory in brackets:

1. Elmwood-Transcona (51 votes)
2. Desneth-Missinippi-ChurchillRiver (70 votes)
3. Edmonton Mill Woods (80 votes)
4. Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte (110 votes)
5. Regina-Lewvan (143 votes)

In the last federal election, Joseph ran as a New Democrat under the leadership of the late Jack Layton. He lost to Clarke by 794 votes (3.63 per cent).

Regina-Lewvan was won by the NDP's Erin Weir lateMondaynight, following a see-saw battle that often sawConservative Trent Fraser in the lead.

Regina-Lewvan had the most voters of all the Saskatchewan ridings 47,826.

In the end, Weir received 143 more votes than Fraser. Liberal candidate Louis Browne ran a strong third, receiving 27.5 per cent of the popular vote.

Last time Weir ran, it wasn't close

In the 2004 federal election, Weir ran forthe NDP in the Regina'sWascana riding against popular Liberal candidate Ralph Goodale. That yearWeir came in third,losing by 14,796 votes.

Goodale was elected for the eighth straight timeon Monday.

Meanwhile, the closest race in the country was in Manitoba's Elmwood-Transcona where the NDP's Daniel Blaikie beat the Conservative candidate Lawrence Toet by 51 votes.

A judicial recount is automaticif the vote differential is less than 0.1 per centof the number of people who voted in that particular riding.

The difference would need to be 30votes or less inDesneth-Missinippi-ChurchillRiver and48 votes or less inRegina-Lewvan.