Liberal Leader Andrew Furey, left to right, Progressive Conservative Leader Ches Crosbie and NDP Leader Alison Coffin sit prior to a TV debate from the floor of the House of Assembly in St. John's on Feb. 3, 2021.Paul Daly/The Canadian Press
The last day of an election campaign is typically packed with high-energy, high-visibility events to rustle up a few final votes.
But Rhonda Simms, a first-time candidate in Newfoundland and Labrador’s provincial election, was spending the day at home, staring at a screen. “I never thought in a million years that everything would be so unorganized and confusing and unsafe,” she said in an interview Friday.
“Everything is a mess.”
On Thursday, voters and candidates learned voting in Saturday’s election would be delayed in 18 of the province’s 40 ridings because of a COVID-19 outbreak hitting the Avalon Peninsula, home to the provincial capital and more than half the population of Newfoundland and Labrador.
On Friday, a day before the other 22 ridings were set to head to the polls, confusion remained and the party leaders were largely absent from view, apart from an appearance by Liberal Leader and Premier Andrew Furey at a public health briefing on the outbreak.
Simms, a Progressive Conservative candidate, said she wishes the election delay had been extended across the province to include her central Newfoundland riding of Lewisporte-Twillingate, where residents were still set to vote Saturday.
She suspended her in-person campaign Friday when she found out someone who had visited her campaign office had recently tested positive for COVID-19.
Noting that chief medical officer of health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald has said the outbreak would likely spread beyond the St. John’s region, Simms said delaying the election in the rest of the province is the only safe and fair thing to do.
“This past week ... we have had three major snowstorms,” she said. “Because of that, there are people in this community that I fear have not gone to get tested.” The closest spot they could get swabbed for COVID-19 is more than 45 minutes away, she added.
As the number of cases shot up, chief electoral officer Bruce Chaulk initially said Thursday that the power to delay an election lay with the chief medical officer. But later that day Fitzgerald said she had sought legal advice and been told it wasn’t her call to make, and it was Chaulk who announced the partial delay.
On Friday, it still wasn’t clear what the legal ramifications of the delay could be. A news release from the chief electoral officer Friday afternoon said parties could continue campaigning in ridings where the vote was delayed until the day of the rescheduled vote – which hasn’t been set.
Lyle Skinner, an Ottawa-based constitutional lawyer who specializes in parliamentary and emergency management law, said that undetermined date could lead to a legal challenge of results in delayed districts.
Newfoundland and Labrador’s Elections Act doesn’t have explicit provisions allowing Chaulk to do what he did, Skinner said in an interview Friday. There’s a section giving him the power to move the election in the case of an emergency, but other sections limit the numbers of days by which he can move it. In essence, Chaulk is in the unenviable position of having to make the best decision for democracy within the confines of an incompatible law, Skinner said.
“It highlights the need for all provinces to be able to ensure that their electoral laws are flexible enough to account for unexpected circumstances,” Skinner said. New Brunswick has a similar tangle in its legislation, he said, which could have raised similar problems during the provincial election in September. They didn’t come up because New Brunswick didn’t have an outbreak of COVID-19 during its campaign.
For now, Elections NL has extended the deadline for voters in the affected ridings to request mail-in ballots and is encouraging everyone to vote this way “to ensure the ability to participate in this election.”
During a virtual news conference Thursday evening, Furey said his caretaker government, which by convention exercises limited power, will remain in place until the election can be fully held.
As for Simms, she tried to reach out to her constituents virtually on Friday while hoping they wouldn’t have to vote the next day. “This is not the right time for an election,” she said, adding: “Someone has to step up to the plate and make that decision.”
Our Morning Update and Evening Update newsletters are written by Globe editors, giving you a concise summary of the day’s most important headlines. Sign up today.