The Member of Parliament for Provencher says he is excited to welcome two new Conservative members to the team.

There were four by-elections held Monday. Conservative candidates Branden Leslie took the Portage-Lisgar seat and Arpan Khanna won in Oxford, Ontario. The other two by-elections saw Liberal Ben Carr win the Winnipeg South Centre seat and Liberal Anna Gainey win in Notre-Dame-de-Grace-Westmount, Quebec.

"I don't think there were any real surprises in the overall results from (Monday's) by-elections," says Ted Falk. 

He notes the Conservatives won in the two ridings they were expecting to.

Branden Leslie took nearly 65 per cent of the votes in Portage-Lisgar. That is up from the 52 per cent that Conservative Candice Bergen took in the 2021 general election. 

"We were happy to capture a larger percentage of the vote than we had during the 2021 general election," adds Falk.

Leslie's nearest competitor was Max Bernier from the People's Party of Canada. The People's Party of Canada saw their support in Portage-Lisgar drop from nearly 22 per cent in the 2021 vote to 17 per cent received by Bernier in Monday's vote. 

With regards to Bernier, Falk says a lot of constituents of Portage-Lisgar told him that they liked Bernier's message, yet when they matched what he was saying on the campaign trail, it did not line up with his past record in Parliament. 

"I think a lot of people saw through that," suggests Falk. "We saw his percentage of the vote go down by almost five per cent. And being a candidate from outside the riding, I think that's something that could be expected."

Falk says he is not sure whether or not we have seen the last of Bernier in federal politics. The Provencher MP says the People's Party of Canada is not getting the traction it needs in order to go the distance long-term. Falk says he has heard that Bernier expects to be the Portage-Lisgar candidate in the next general election. As for when that election might happen, Falk says so far there are only rumours.

"The government has two years that they could extend to the next general election, as long as they can maintain their supply agreement with the NDP," notes Falk.

Meanwhile, with regards to Branden Leslie, Falk says hard work paid off.

"Branden Leslie has worked very hard in the nomination as well as in the by-election now," notes Falk. "Being a local candidate from the riding, having grown up on a family farm just outside of Portage la Prairie, it was his riding, it was his constituency."

With Provencher neighbouring Portage-Lisgar, Falk says he worked closely with the former MP Candice Bergen and now expects the same relationship with Leslie. Falk says he and Bergen would travel back and forth together from Manitoba to Ottawa on a weekly basis. He adds there is also the Manitoba caucus for Conservative members that meets weekly.

"So yeah, we'll be working closely together with Branden (Leslie) and looking forward to having him part of our team," adds Falk.

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