Canadian Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is expected to win a seat in parliament

Canadian conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is expected to win a crucial by-election in Alberta to ensure a new parliamentary seat after losing voters in the last general election.

As the final votes are still being counted, Poilievre leads with 80.1% of the votes in rural battle river rides, according to CBC.

“It is a lifelong privilege for me to know people in the area,” he said on Monday to an ecstatic crowd.

His expected victory came four months after his party was defeated by Mark Carney’s liberals, who lost his Ottawa area seat held by Liberal Bruce Fanjoy.

In this by-election, Poilievre faced 214 candidates, many of whom were associated with protest groups seeking election reform.

This is the second time the group has made Poilievre a campaign. Voters were asked to fill out the ballot due to the unusually high number of candidates.

Poilievre’s expected victory will bring the 46-year-old back to the House of Commons after a defeat in April.

The special election was called after former Conservative MP Damian Kurek resigned to get Poilievre to run.

Poilievre thanked Kurek for his “kind sacrifice” in his victory speech.

Alberta is a conservative stronghold – Kurek is a former cycling member of Congress who won by 83% of the vote. In the past, riding was won by at least 70% of the conservatives who voted.

The conservative leader faced challenges from some locals, including independent candidate Bonnie Critchley, who accused him of seeking to win a ride as “no more than a means to achieve his end.”

Poilievre defended his campaign and told Calgary Herald newspaper that he sent it like “a vote behind it.”

“I believe in humility and gaining people’s trust,” he said.

Poilievre is now facing mandatory leadership scrutiny in January, with Conservative members going to vote on whether he should be a leader at the upcoming National Convention.