'Dwight Ball, you can dismiss me, but you can't defeat me': Eddie Joyce nabs seat once again

The incumbent forHumber-Bay of Islands hung on to his seat in a runaway win Thursday night, despite a rocky year that saw him booted from the Liberal cabinet under a cloud of allegations and misfires.

Eddie Joyce will remainin the House of Assembly as an unaffiliated MHA, after running in the spring election as an Independent candidate.

"It's a great night for myself and all the people of Humber-Bay of Islands, and all the election team that worked so hard to ensure we got a victory here tonight," Joyce told CBC from his Corner Brook headquarters moments after his victory.

Joyce, who blasted past the Liberals' Brian Dicks, the PCs' Michael Holden and NDP candidate Shawn Hodder, made headlines repeatedly over the last year following harassment allegations fromLiberal cabinet ministerSherry Gambin-Walsh.

He weathered thatfallout, eventually being cleared of the accusations, although he was found to have broken the MHA code of conduct by lobbying to get a friend a government job.

Joyce made headlines shortly after with hisseemingly sarcastic, two-word apology to the House of Assembly and comparison of his plight to the ongoing conflict in Syria.

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But those speed bumps did little to slow him down, with Joyce outpacing his closest competitor by 50 percentage points and leading the way with over two-thirds of the total vote.

As Joyce accepted the mic for his victory speech, he grinned widely.

"The first thing I want to say, and I want to make it quite clear: Dwight Ball, you can dismiss me, but you can't defeat me."

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Cheers went up from purple-clad supporters, includinghis assistant, Judy Bolt, who's worked alongside Joyce for 30 years.

"We've been involved in a lot of election campaigns, but I think this is the sweetest one," she said.

"Eddie really deserved this here tonight."

Liberals faltered in district

Joyce said he heard murmurs of discontent with the ruling Liberal government in his district, with voters taking issue with the Liberals' onslaught of funding promises during the campaign.

"When you start making announcements, it shows a sign of desperation," Joyce said.

Tabling a budget the days before calling an early election also didn't sit well with the voters he heard from, he added.

"That's the kind of thing that was brought up to me. You know, if you're going to pass the budget, pass the budget."

2 Independents could swing House

Another unaffiliated candidate won a seat Thursday, with Paul Lane capturing 43.7 per cent of the vote in the four-way Mount Pearl-Southlands race.

Lane, another former Liberal, was removed from caucus in 2016 after clashing with proposals in that year's budget.

"I've had a strong voice in the House of Assembly...holding the government to [account]," Lane told CBC after his win on election night.

"We have some very serious issues facing our province in terms of our overspending, in terms of our looming electricity rates," he continued.

"If there was ever a time in our history we have to be able to putpartisanship aside and work together for the benefit of the people it's now, and I believe I'm going to have a very important role in making that happen."

Joyce also alluded to having more leverage on the assembly floor,tellingCBC News earlier this month that, although the relationship with Ball's Liberals hadn't yet been mended, he hadn't quite ruled out negotiating some kind of affiliation or alliance.

On election night, he confirmed that he wouldn't seek to join any party, even if asked.

The minority government lends both Independents a considerable amount of power in the house; with the Liberals' 20 seats, the government may need to seduce at least one of them in order to push through legislation.

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