Complex sentence: Charest led the party back to official party status in the 1997 election winning 20 seats, with the exception of one seat each in Ontario and Manitoba, the rest of the seats were all in the Maritimes and Quebec.
Split into simpler sentences: Charest led the party back to official party status in the 1997 election, winning 20 seats. With the exception of one seat each in Ontario and Manitoba, the rest of the seats were all in the Maritimes and Quebec.