CBC News projects that Conservative Jim Eglinski will be elected tonight in the Alberta riding of Yellowhead,
The retired RCMP officer Eglinski glided to victory, in one of two federal byelections tonight.
Eglinski, 65, is a former mayor of Fort St. John, B.C., but now lives on an acreage outside Edson.
Polls closed at 7:30 p.m. MT and the call came 30 minutes later.
It was the same story in 2011 when the federal riding elected the now retired Conservative MP Rob Merrifield with a 77 per cent share of the vote.
Merrifield resigned after 14 years to work for Alberta Premier Jim Prentice as the province’s representative to the United States in Washington, D.C.
The sprawling, largely rural riding stretches from just west of Edmonton all the way to the British Columbia border, encompassing Jasper National Park.
Former prime minister Joe Clark represented the riding from 1979 to 1993.
A second byelection tonight is being held in the Ontario riding of Whitby-Oshawa to fill the vacancy left by the death of former finance minister Jim Flaherty.
Yellowhead byelection results, Nov. 17, 2014
Candidate
Party
%
Jim Eglinski
Conservative Party of Canada
68.5
Cory Lystang
Libertarians
3.1
Ryan Hein Maguhn
Liberal Party of Canada
14.3
Eric Rosendahl
New Democratic Party
8.5
Dean Williams
Independent5.
5.6
Polls reporting
72 /284
