By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
While BC voters delivered an unclear result on Saturday with some ridings registering only a couple of dozen votes between NDP and Conservative candidates things were clearer in the Boundary-Similkameen where incumbent BC NDP candidate Roly Russell lost his seat to BC Conservative Party’s Donegal Wilson.
Russell garnered 42.45 per cent of the vote with 10,270 votes while Wilson attracted 48.49 per cent with 11,733 votes. Other candidates in the riding including Kevin Eastwood of the BC Green Party won 5.88 per cent of the vote with 1,422 votes and Independent Sean Taylor attracted 3.19 per cent with 771 votes.
Wilson did not reply to a request for comment prior to going to print but in a statement on social media, Wilson paid tribute to her fellow candidates: “Running for office is no easy task, and I thank you for your dedication and the campaigns you ran. I know you all worked hard, and your families also made sacrifices.
“To my friends, family, volunteers, and supporters – this victory belongs to all of you. I am so proud of what we’ve accomplished together.
“For me, this isn’t just about winning; it’s about what’s next. I’m honoured to represent Boundary-Similkameen, and I’m ready to get to work in Victoria. We have real challenges ahead, and I’m excited to deliver on the promises we’ve made.
“To everyone who told me they feel unheard, I hear you. I will be your voice in Victoria. I’ll continue to listen, meet with you, and ensure the rural communities of Boundary-Similkameen are represented.”
Meanwhile, Russell told the Times Chronicle that while his team didn’t get the result they hoped for, it doesn’t change his goal.
“Elections come and go, but the work of building strong, caring communities doesn’t stop – people will continue to do just that in all the different ways, myself included. I may not be your MLA, but I’m not going anywhere. I’ll keep standing up for what matters, fighting to help bring more care into the world, and I’m so proud of everything we’ve built together.
“It’s been a huge honour to be able to work for our beautiful place and the people here for the last four years. I look forward to seeing what Donegal is able to deliver for all of us, and even more to having time to be with my friends and family! I still believe that care for others is more important than anything else.”
Preliminary results from Elections BC. The final count will take place from Oct. 26-28.
Overall the province-wide results cast an unclear air over who will run the province with the BC NDP winning 46 seats with 44.6 per cent of the vote and the BC Conservative Party with 45 seats with 43.57 per cent of the vote. A majority requires 47 seats.
The BC Green Party won two seats with an 8.19 per cent vote share. Unfortunately for the Greens, the party lost its leader with Sonia Furstenau losing her seat in the Victoria-Beacon Hill riding.
The Green Party now finds itself in the position of possibly being the “kingmaker” in pushing either the NDP or Conservative party into a majority position with its two seats. It would however seem unlikely that the Greens would lend their support to the Conservative party given its leader John Rustad’s apparent climate change denials.
Meanwhile, pundits have pointed to the similarity of this election to that of 2017 when Christy Clark’s BC Liberals one two more seats than the NDP but were denied power after the BC Green Party threw its two seats into a coalition government with the NDP.
Lieutenant Governor Janet Austin now must decide who to call on for the first chance to form the government but convention has it that the incumbent party is approached first. In order for the NDP to form a majority government they will need to pick up one more seat either through vote recounts or through some form of coalition with the Green Party.
Some ridings will be triggered by automatic recounts as any riding with a difference of 100 votes or less is automatically recounted.
The Juan de Fuca-Malahat riding was illustrative of the closeness of the race, with the leaderboard flip-flopping back and forth almost minute by minute between the NDP and Conservative candidates all night long on Saturday evening. Currently, the two candidates in that riding are separated by only 20 votes.
Elections BC says recounts will take place in the key ridings of Juan de Fuca-Malahat and Surrey City Centre as part of the final count between Oct. 26 and 28. This means the results of the provincial election won’t be official for another week.
Elections BC also noted that the initial count does not reflect about 49,000 absentee and mail-in ballots that will be included in the final count starting this Saturday, Oct. 26.
Voter turnout registered 57 per cent but it’s unclear how much of an impact the atmospheric river had which hit Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island on Saturday.
