NOVA SCOTIA ELECTION RESULTS : BIG WINNERS

Saturday night, the Pittsburgh Penguins lost to the Detroit Red Wings; scoring not once but allowing five. Last night, just one minute after Cole Harbour MLA and Premier-designate Darrell Dexter finished his speech, Cole Harbour's own Sidney Crosby led the Penguins onto the ice in a must-win game. Pittsburgh won 2-1. Guess what? It doesn't matter how great the margin of victory was, by five goals or one. Each team's scorecard shows 3 Ws.

Frank Corbett, the NDP incumbent in Cape Breton Centre, beat the collective vote total of all his opponents by 3,852 votes. Next door in Cape Breton North, a Tory incumbent named Cecil Clarke beat his NDP opponent by just 164 votes. Guess what? Both Corbett and Clarke head back to the Legislature because both guys won. And it doesn't matter by how much.

Nevertheless, here's a look at a few of last night's big winners; winners who are considered big for a variety of reasons.

-----

56.05 - percentage of the vote in Inverness collected by ex-Premier Rodney MacDonald. They said he was in danger. Yet more than half of all voters in his riding still think he's the best man for the job. Look out for his NDP opponent, Michael MacIsaac, in the future.

31 - total seats won by Darrell Dexter's NDP in Nova Scotia on Tuesday night. Alexa McDonough never won 31 seats. In fact, John Hamm's PCs didn't manage more than 30. Not since John Savage's Liberal party won 40 seats (and the NDP won 3) has any Premier had such a dominant force in Province House.

50.03 - percentage of the vote in Hammonds Plains-Upper Sackville coloured orange for Mat Whynot. Whynot could be given a lot of credit for taking over half the vote against an incumbent cabinet member. Then again, this was Barry Barnet. Whynot was one of two candidates to beat Barnet. Liberal Patrick Doyle did so, as well. Watch out for Whynot, though. He rose up through the NDP organization and is looked upon favourably by many in the party.

4,073 - total votes won by the Liberal candidate in Dartmouth East, Andrew Younger. That's more than the incumbent's total of 3,903. What makes Younger a big winner? He's the only new MLA in the province to take out an incumbent New Democrat, Joan Massey. Massey was often the best-dressed MLA and seemed to be a very likeable member.

50.16 - percentafe of the vote in Colchester North that went Karen Casey's way. Casey, not the most adept Minister of anything, became a high-profile Tory in a strong Tory riding. I don't think many watchers could safely say that on June 9th, the Minister of Health in a province where the health system is messed up would take over half the vote in her riding. She did anyway.

67.94 - percentage of the vote won by Murray Scott in Cumberland South. They say Scott spends huge chunks of his time fertilizing his constituency. It pays off.

6,174 - total votes attributed to the NDP's Bill Estabrooks. I often complain about his behaviour in the House, but his Timberlea-Prospect peeps must love his behaviour in the riding. Estabrooks took over 70% of the vote.

41.43 - Jim Morton's percentage of the vote might not seem big winneresque, but he took out a well-respected PC Minister in Mark Parent. Other cabinet memebers fell, yes. But Parent.... he was such a nice guy.

73.32 - percentage of the vote given to Liberal leader Stephen McNeil. If McNeil ain't disappointed in his party's piddling advancement in two sections of the province (Dartmouth East & Bedford-Birch Cove), I'd be shocked. In Annapolis, McNeil must feel very loved.

4.77 - percentage of the vote won by the Green Party candidate in Halifax Needham. 375 people voted for Kris MacLellan in a riding won by NDP stalwart Maureen MacDonald. Other ridings that treated their Green Party candidate well included Kings North (Anna-Maria Galante-Ward with 4.43%), Halifax Chebucto (Chris Hanlon with 4.42%), Halifax Atlantic (Anthony Rosborough with 4.42%), and Halifax Citadel where the Green Party leader, Ryan Watson, received 329 votes for 4.27% of the vote.