Saint John-Rothesay elects Liberal candidate Wayne Long

Liberal Wayne Longwon the southern riding of Saint John-Rothesay in Monday's election.

Long was elected with 48.8per cent support.

"I'm just thrilled for the opportunity," he said. "It's been a dream of mine to want to represent Saint John-RothesayI wantto roll up my sleevesand come up with a plan to move this riding,and this great city,forward."

Long says he started to feel votersmightbe leaning in his favour about a month ago.

"I think we were neck-and-neck with Rodneyfor probably the last few months," he said. "I would say [in]the last month you could see it turna lot of people that we didn't think would support us were starting to support us."

Conservative Rodney Weston, who wasseeking his third term as MP for the SaintJohn area,received 30.4per cent of thevote on Monday.

"I feel very proud about the work that I've done as a Member of Parliament here in Saint John," Weston said. "I hold my head up."

"In seven years, I was able to deliver a lot of projects here in Saint Johna lot of needs that were met that hadn't been met in the pastand I feel good about that," he said.

New Democrat A.J. Griffin placedthird in the riding, with 17.7per cent of the vote,while the Green Party's Sharon Murphy had 3.2per cent support.

One of the main issues throughout the campaign was the proposed Energy East pipeline, something Long says he supports wholeheartedly.

"It's probablyone of the things that I think the Tories were counting on, that I would be vague and non-committal on the pipeline," Long said.

"[F]rom day one, I said that Wayne Long always supported the pipeline. And you know, the Liberal Party certainly just wants to make sure there's a fair process to move the pipeline forward."