Bill Casey snatches Cumberland-Colchester from Conservatives

Bill Casey is returning to Parliament Hill, this time as a Liberal, as he snatched Cumberland-Colchester from the Conservative incumbent on Monday night.

In victory, he retakes a riding he once held as a Conservative, then as an independent, before he stepped down in 2009.

Casey says as he watched the results, it struck him that Atlantic Canada was sending Conservative Leader Stephen Harper the message that it wants change.

"The message could be it could be anything you want," Casey told CBC News. "It can be, 'We want veterans looked after, we want the environment looked after, we want the economy looked after.'"

Going down to defeat is Conservative Scott Armstrong, a school principal who was once Casey's campaign manager. He won the seat in a 2009 byelection.

The Liberals had targeted the seat with Casey, a popular former MP who left the Conservative fold. The Tories had hoped to hold onto the riding. In August, Harper held a rally in Amherst.

Casey was booted from the Tory caucus in 2007 after he voted against the federal budget. He argued the Conservative budget didn't allow Nova Scotia to fully benefit from offshore oil and gas revenues without losing equalization payments.