With 778 mail-in ballots to still be counted, Lawrence finished the night holding a 854-vote lead over the NDP’s Melissa Patterson, meaning even Patterson sweeping the mail-in votes would not change the final result.
With all ballot boxes reporting, Lawrence had 3,129 votes, Patterson 2,275 votes, Darcy Jensen of the Progressive Conservatives 225 votes and Abby Firlotte of the Green Party 138 votes.
"First of all, I want to thank the people of Moose Jaw Wakamow for putting their trust in me for the third time and re-electing me because it is all about working for them," said Lawrence, following the conclusion of the results. "The second thing I want to do is thank my family, because without their support and I'll say their work during this campaign, I don't know if I could have done it. And thirdly, a huge thanks going out to my team, Simone, Dax, David, Robin, and I know there were lots of volunteers I didn't get a chance to meet."
Seeing the race as close as it was didn’t come as a surprise to Lawrence, who will serve his third term as MLA after winning his first election in 2011 and being re-elected in 2016.“Well, Moose Jaw Wakamow is always tight, and I’ll hand Melissa credit,” Lawrence said as the final ballots were counted in Moose Jaw. "She worked harder than any other NDP candidate I've gone up against, and she showed her work ethic in all the work she did, so I just want to congratulate her for putting her name forward and running because that's not an easy thing to do."
Lawrence is proud of his campaign team and plans to keep on working hard for his constituents.
“I had a great team, I had lots of family help, and the people of Moose Jaw Wakamow have my heart,” he said. “I’ve worked for them probably harder than they’ve had anyone work for them before… that’s my job, to work for the people and my team and my office do that every day.”
Lawrence will be joined by fellow Sask Party candidate Tim McLeod as the successful winner of Moose Jaw North, replacing former MLA Warren Michelson but retaining a Sask Party monopoly here in Moose Jaw.
"[The campaign] went well and it was because of the leadership, I believe, of Scott Moe and the leadership he provided during the pandemic to show the people of Saskatchewan that they are what we care about, they are the reasons we do this," said Lawrence. "It won't be Warren [working for Moose Jaw North moving forward] but they will be as well represented by Tim as Warren ever did."
Patterson wasn’t immediately available for comment.
For a look at the full election results, be sure to visit results.elections.sk.ca/.
This article was completed with notes from Larissa Kurz, Moose Jaw Today.
