The financial services sector will be represented in Ottawa. At least two advisors were elected in Monday’s federal election, one Liberal and one Conservative.

Lui Temelkovski, director of advisor development with Freedom 55 Financial, won for the Liberals in the Ontario riding of Oak Ridges-Markham riding, taking almost 52% of the popular vote vs 34% for his nearest rival, the Conservative candidate.

Temelkovski, a long time Liberal supporter, says he’ll take a leave of absence from his position at Freedom 55. “I’ve enjoyed the financial services industry immensely. It’s been a very rewarding career,” he says. “I’ve met a lot of people and trained a lot of people, many who are still with London Life, and many others who’ve also gone onto other companies. I’m very proud of that.”

Temelkovski, 49, a native of Italy, said he hopes to be a role model for other hard working immigrants.

One province away in the Manitoba riding of Portage-Lisgar, Brian Pallister, founder of Pallister Insurance and Financial Services, held on to his seat for the Conservatives. He first won in 2000. Pallister won with a convincing 66% of the vote; his nearest rival, the Liberal candidate, received less than 18% of the vote.

Pallister says he got into politics in 1992 when two major employers pulled out of the riding.

Pallister was a high school teacher before he got into the insurance industry, first working with Sun Life back in 1980. “My clients are the most understanding group you’d ever want,” he says. “They’ve accepted my transient presence. I think most of them are conservative now.”

He says his experience in the financial services industry remains tremendously relevant to his work in Parliament. “I’m able to apply a lot of the same lessons. Not just the people skills, but the fundamentals of money management that are not often applied on the government side. Cleaning up and moving towards value for money in government; these are things a financial manager understands.”

Other financial services hopefuls profiled by Investment Executive were not so lucky in their races. Tim Robson, NDP hopeful in the Alberta riding of Wetaskiwin, plans to continue his work with Robson Insurance and the Wetaskiwin Chamber of Commerce after getting 3,039 votes, around 7% of those cast in his riding. His prediction “people tend to vote the way they voted before,” rings true in his case. The riding went to Conservative MP Dale Johnston with almost 74% of the votes cast.

Also in Alberta, Conservative candidate Tim Uppal, a residential mortgage manager with TD Canada Trust, ran an extremely tight race with Liberal MP David Kilgour in the riding of Edmonton-Beaumont. According to latest results, Uppal lost by only 32 votes. Look for a recount.

Ontario Liberal candidate Rick Limoges hoped to unseat NDP incumbent Joe Comartin, a lawyer with the Canadian Auto Workers, in the riding of Windsor-Tecumseh. Limoges was the MP for the riding until losing his seat to Comartin by only 401 votes in 2000. This time around the Berkshire planner received 34% of the votes vs 42% for Comartin.