Conservatives take back Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge
Credit to Author: Glenda Luymes| Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2019 06:28:12 +0000
At least two ridings north of the Fraser River are back in blue after Conservative candidates in Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge and Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon defeated Liberal incumbents in traditionally Tory territory.
In Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, one of the closest three-way races in the country in 2015, Conservative Marc Dalton defeated Liberal incumbent Dan Ruimy, while Conservative Brad Vis bested Liberal Jati Sidhu in Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon. Liberal incumbent Ron McKinnon had the lead in Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam
Dalton said he had “mixed emotions.” Although disappointed by the Liberal minority government, he was excited to represent the riding where he first ran for the federal nomination in 2004.
“This has been a long time coming,” he said.
Dalton, a former two-term B.C. Liberal MLA, credited hard work by volunteers and plenty of door-knocking for getting out the vote.
His campaign manager Nicole Nouch said Dalton likely wore out a pair of shoes knocking on more than 10,000 doors himself.
Earlier in the evening, Liberal incumbent Ruimy said he was feeling upbeat.
“I like to think of myself as a constituency MP,” he told Postmedia News.
“We’ve connected with a lot of people (and) worked across party lines. We’ve really upped our ground game here.”
The ridings north of the Fraser River have traditionally voted Conservative, but Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon and Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam all elected Liberal candidates in 2015.
Hamish Telford, associate professor of political science at the University of the Fraser Valley, likened the three ridings to a “litmus test” that could reflect the Liberals’ chances of holding onto power.
“I think they are sort of a litmus test of Trudeau’s continuing popularity or lack of it,” he told Postmedia in the days before the election.
“If the Liberals can hold what are normally Conservative ridings, then they are obviously in good shape. But I anticipate they’ll lose those three and the question is: How broad will that trend be?”
Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge Conservative candidate Marc Dalton walks with wife Marlene while campaigning on Dewdney Trunk Road during the election campaign. Photo by Lori Culbert.
In Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, Dalton won with 19,501 votes compared to Ruimy’s 15,957.
Vis had a 6,000 vote lead over Sidhu in a rematch of the 2015 campaign in Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon with 168 out of 179 polls reporting.
Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam, a traditionally Conservative stronghold that unexpectedly swung Liberal in the last election, looked like it would go to McKinnon, who had just 200 votes over Conservative candidate Nicholas Insley at the time of going to press.
With files by Lori Culbert
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