Lawrence Belanger received 569 votes (10.15%), finishing third against New Democratic Party incumbent Donald Malinowski.
Daniel Kennedy received 3,765 votes (38.18%), finishing a close second against New Democratic Party incumbent Jim Walding.
[1] Johnston initially opted out of Manitoba's medicare program in 1969 and encouraged other doctors in Thompson to do the same.
Johnston ran as an independent, and some local Liberals charged that his candidacy was organized by the governing Progressive Conservatives to split the opposition vote.
(The original returns showed Borowski with a twenty-three vote lead; a judicial recount narrowed his majority to seventeen.