Conservative Dona Cadman succeeded her husband as MP for Surrey North last night, becoming one of only a handful of politicians in Canadian history to win seats held by their late spouses.
Ms. Cadman, widow of Chuck Cadman, won the riding her husband held - from 1997 to his cancer-related death in 2005 - in a close race with New Democrat Rachid Arab.
The win opens a new chapter for a couple that gained prominence through tragedy - the murder of their son Jesse - and then made a mark in justice-reform advocacy and politics.
The Chilliwack-born child of a military family was marched into her campaign headquarters last night by a bagpiper. She delivered a brief speech before retreating to a small office with a small core of supporters.
"You have honoured me with your vote and I am going to work tirelessly for you," she said.
She promised to work hard on crime and infrastructure issues but made no reference at all to the dramatic turns in her life.
Ms. Cadman and her husband were married for 36 years and had two children: Jodi and their 16-year-old son, Jesse, who was murdered by another teen in 1992, sparking the couple's dedication to justice reform.
The outcome of the Surrey North race was hard to peg beforehand because voters in the riding have swung massively between New Democrats and candidates from the conservative wing of Canadian politics - Reformers, the Canadian Alliance and full-fledged Tories - since the riding was created in 1986.
Mr. Cadman was first elected as a Reformer in 1997.
In an eight-year political career that ended with his death in 2005, he was also elected as a member of the Canadian Alliance, the Tories and then as an Independent in 2004.
His political career included stints as a youth justice critic and vice chairman of the justice committee.
But its most memorable moment was his vote in favour of a budget amendment in 2005 that saved Paul Martin's minority Liberal government from defeat.
After Mr. Cadman's death, Penny Priddy, a long-time family friend, won the riding for the NDP in 2006, scoring a 6,000-vote win over her Tory rival.
But the former B.C. health minister announced she would not run again in this election.
Ms. Cadman, 58, has said she was courted to run by Stephen Harper and told a local newspaper she wanted to continue her husband's fight for reforming the justice system.
But she has been elusive, invariably saying she wanted to avoid the national media and was too busy campaigning to talk.
In one infamous moment, she was shielded from reporters by the RCMP security detail protecting Mr. Harper during a campaign event in Vancouver that she attended.
But the biggest complication for Ms. Cadman were allegations in a biography of her husband that Tory officials offered him a $1-million life-insurance policy as he was seriously ill in 2005 in order to get his vote against the minority Liberals in a crucial confidence vote.
Mr. Harper and the Conservatives launched a lawsuit against the Liberals for defamation for posting taped material from an interview that Mr. Cadman's biographer, Tom Zytaruk, did with the Prime Minister.
Ms. Cadman told Mr. Zytaruk about the offer, then was caught in an awkward situation when she set out to run for the Tories.
She maintained throughout the campaign that she could not say anything because the case was before the courts.
Ian Bailey