By Richard McGuire
Richard Cannings, the new NDP MP for South Okanagan-West Kootenay is joined on stage by his daughter Julia Cannings (left) and his wife Margaret Holm. (Richard McGuire photo)
As voters across much of Canada painted the electoral map red in a Liberal majority, South Okanagan-West Kootenay (SOWK) elected Richard Cannings of the NDP.
Cannings beat his closest rival, Conservative Marshall Neufeld, by nearly 5,000 votes. Liberal Connie Denesiuk came in strongly in third place.
With all polls reporting, Cannings took 24,823 votes (37.2 per cent), Neufeld took 19,894 votes (29.8 per cent) and Denesiuk took 18,727 votes (28.1 per cent).
Far behind them were Samantha Troy of the Green Party with 2,851 votes and independent candidate Brian Gray with 432 votes.
The election appeared to be a strong repudiation of the Conservative government led by Stephen Harper as riding after riding swung to the Liberals. The Conservatives announced that Harper would step down as leader.
Nationally, the results were Liberals 184, Conservatives 99, NDP 44, Bloc Québécois 10 and Green 1.
Indications of a red tide were evident when polls began reporting from Atlantic Canada in the middle of the afternoon Pacific Time showing even the safest NDP and Conservative ridings had gone Liberal, as the Liberals swept all 32 seats in the region.
Only in the Quebec City area, rural Southern Ontario and the rural Prairies did the Conservatives hang onto most of their seats.
In B.C. many seats in Metro Vancouver went Liberal, with the NDP and Conservatives each hanging onto a few. Vancouver Island went solidly NDP with the exception of Green Party Leader Elizabeth May’s seat in Saanich-Gulf Islands, which she easily retook.
In the B.C. Interior, Wayne Stetski of the NDP pulled off a narrow win over Conservative incumbent David Wilks. In Kelowna-Lake Country, Liberal Stephen Fuhr defeated Conservative incumbent Ron Cannan.
Around 9:30 p.m., shortly after Cannings was declared the winner, he made his way to a conference room at the Penticton Lakeside Resort, Hotel and Convention Centre where supporters waited.
As he talked to reporters, Denesiuk, whose supporters were at a bar just down the hall, came up to him to congratulate him and for a short moment, the two reminisced about how they’d gotten to know each other attending about 20 forums around the riding over the 78-day campaign.
“It was a clean race,” Denesiuk told reporters. “I would say there weren’t the personal attacks that you might find in some campaigns, so I give credit to Richard Cannings and Marshall Neufeld and Samantha Troy and Brian Gray because they were great candidates. We were actually friends. There were times that we ate meals together and I certainly appreciated that we weren’t running a dirty campaign here.”
Both Cannings and Denesiuk emphasized that voters wanted change.
“People want Canada back,” said Denesiuk. “They want to be proud to be Canadian again. That’s exactly what’s going to happen, starting tomorrow morning.”
Cannings pledged to work hard for constituents and to keep an open-door policy.
Neufeld appeared briefly at a subdued gathering of supporters at Penticton’s Ramada Inn.
“I would like to thank the thousands of people who showed such strong support for me through this campaign, especially the many who worked so diligently as one of my volunteers,” Neufeld said in an emailed statement. “The people of South Okanagan-West Kootenay expressed their views clearly and I both congratulate Mr. Cannings and wish him well. I fully expect Mr. Cannings to be the effective advocate for our riding, which we need in Ottawa.”
An elated Cannings circulated the conference room crammed with supporters, embracing or shaking hands with most of them. He then took to the stage with his wife Margaret Holm to thank his volunteers.
Then he thanked outgoing NDP MP Alex Atamanenko.
“Alex has been a real mentor to me and an inspiration over the past couple of years,” said Cannings. “Everywhere I go in this riding, people talk about Alex and say ‘if you’re going to be as good as Alex, I’ll vote for you.’ I have big shoes to fill.”
Holm, who accompanied Cannings throughout the campaign, acknowledged there were some difficult moments, as well as touching ones when they encountered people in the riding who were struggling to make ends meet.
“We think of this area as being very rich with wine and beaches and tourism,” she said. “But there’s a lot of people having problems. We start to meet them and it makes you realize this region is very diverse with a diverse population.”
She admitted there were a few moments when she and Cannings didn’t think they would make it.
“We weren’t expecting to win the NDP nomination,” she said, referring to the two-way competition with Margaret Maximenko almost exactly a year ago for the NDP mantle.
The couple braced their children for an anticipated loss and actually started to make travel plans.
Holm admitted there were a few tense moments Monday night as they observed the Liberals sweeping the country and performing well in early local results.
Cannings agreed the race was close as votes were counted.
“It was pretty close, but we were seeing where those polls were coming from at the start,” he said. “The polls we were seeing were from parts of Penticton that we don’t generally do as well in. When the other polls came in, we were very happy.”
Although Denesiuk finished in third place, she held onto second place during much of the vote count. Her 28.1 per cent finish was four times the seven per cent that Liberal candidates took in 2011 when votes are transposed to the current election boundaries.
This result reflected 18 months of tireless campaigning as well as the strong national Liberal trend.
“I’m proud of what we accomplished,” said Denesiuk, who gathered with about two dozen supporters at the Barking Parrot bar and restaurant inside the Lakeside Hotel and Casino in downtown Penticton as election results poured in Monday night.
Denesiuk, who works with her husband Bob running a construction company, said watching the Liberals and their leader Justin Trudeau sweep to power after a 78-day federal campaign to form a majority government was thrilling.
“Even though there is a little bit of disappointment, there’s also a lot of joy because … Canada is finally back on track,” she said. “I’ve given it my all and I’m quite proud of everything we accomplished.
“I would have loved to have been the voice of the people of South Okanagan-West Kootenay in Parliament,” she said. “But I’m very satisfied because I know that things will change. I believe that Canada is going to see some very positive change very quickly under the leadership of Justin Trudeau, so I’m thrilled about that.”
She admitted that strategic voting cut into her support. Polls during the campaign showed Cannings as the frontrunner with Neufeld narrowing the gap near the end.
Denesiuk said it’s too early to think about running in a future election, adding that she didn’t seek the Liberal nomination, but rather was approached to run by the Liberal riding association.
Her priority now is unwinding at her cabin in the woods.
“I’m going to go to the cabin and read some books,” she said. “When you dream about the things you haven’t had a chance to do, it’s reading. Reading and relaxation by the fire.”
(With files from Keith Lacey)
