Monday, May 4, 2015

Canada now has two elected, openly LGBT premiers

PEI Premier Wade MacLauchlan
With tonight's majority Liberal win in Prince Edward Island, Wade MacLauchlan becomes the second openly gay premier elected in Canada (after Kathleen Wynne in Ontario.)

Most celebratory of all is how his sexual orientation seemed to be a non-issue in the race.  How far we have come, indeed!

MacLauchlan's Liberals won 18 seats out of 27 in the province.  The PCs took 8 seats, but their leader Rob Lantz narrowly failed to win his own Charlottetown seat.   

Of note, the provincial NDP and the Greens won big gains in the popular vote, with the Green Party leader, Peter Bevan-Baker, handily winning his party's first seat in the island legislature.   (Unfortunately for the NDP, their increase in the vote was less concentrated and failed to elect anyone under Canada's first-past-the-post voting system. But with tomorrow's election in Alberta, the NDP may soon be smiling.)

For full results,  click here to go to the CBC's election website.

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