Five things — Metro Vancouver's big hits, misses and unexpected turns in the federal election
Credit to Author: David Carrigg| Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2019 06:30:07 +0000
Monday night’s federal election brought shocks, disappointments and intrigues as the federal Liberals secured a minority government in Canada (They won the most seats, but not enough to hold the balance of power in the House of Commons.)
Here’s a look at the five of the more interesting things that came out of the election in Metro Vancouver.
Ken Hardie (left) celebrates his 2015 victory in Fleetwood-Port Kells which he retained on Monday night.
In the 2015 federal election the Liberal red wave swept across B.C.’s second most populous city, resulting in four of the five Surrey ridings being seized from other parties. Two years later, the sole Conservative Surrey MP Dianne Watts (South Surrey-White Rock) stepped aside and was replaced in a byelection by Liberal Gordie Hogg – giving the Liberals total control over Surrey.
In this election, the Liberals kept three seats but lost two. In Surrey Centre, Liberal incumbent Randeep Sarai again won handily over the Conservatives and NDP who got about the same lesser share of the vote.
In Fleetwood-Port Kells Liberal Ken Hardie hung on over Conservative Shinder Purewal, while in Surrey Newton Sukh Dhaliwal won handily over the second place NDP candidate.
However, the Conservatives won South-Surrey White Rock as former Conservative MP Kerry-Lynne Findlay made a political comeback (after losing Delta-Richmond in 2015) and comfortably took out Hogg.
The Cloverdale-Langley City riding was another one that switched back to the Conservatives in this election after being secured in 2015 by Liberal John Aldag, who ran again this time but was just beaten by Tamara Jansen.
Independent MP Jody Wilson-Raybould waves to the crowd at Hellenic Community of Vancouver Centre during Canadian Federal Election in Vancouver, B.C., October 21, 2019.
The fight for Vancouver Granville was the big intrigue in local politics this election, after Liberal incumbent Jody Wilson-Raybould was ousted from caucus and the party for exposing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s involvement in the SNC Lavalin affair.
Wilson-Raybould — faced with the truth that Canadian voters rarely backed an Independent — took a stand, raised money and with the backing of a strong volunteer base got to work.
Monday night was a dogfight up until the end, with Wilson-Raybould, Liberal Taleeb Noormohamed and Conservative candidate Zach Segal each holding the lead at one point. Wilson-Raybould had won handily in 2015, with 44 per cent of the vote, with the NDP and Conservatives each getting 26 per cent of the vote. This year the NDP’s Yvonne Hanson polled fourth.
Wilson-Raybould retained the riding at the end of the night, but it remains to be seen what power Wilson-Raybould will have as an Independent — certainly more than if the Liberals had secured a majority.
Failed NDP candidate Svend Robinson addresses the media Friday, October 4, 2019 at his constituency office in Burnaby, B.C. about homophobic remarks Conservative Party candidate Heather Leung has made in the past.
Longtime former NDP MP Svend Robinson decided to re-enter politics in a riding at the centre — or the end — of the $9.3 billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion debate. The NDP position was no pipeline, while the Liberals – who held the seat – had already bought the pipeline and were committed to moving it ahead.
Robinson had a lot of old supporters and hung in tight but was not able to oust Liberal incumbent Terry Beech.
Robinson is 67 and is a sought-after board member for social and environmental causes.
Green party leader Elizabeth May reacts following the federal election results in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada October 21, 2019.
Well, slowly but surely it’s getting greener.
Federal Green party leader Elizabeth May was re-elected to her Saanich-Gulf Islands riding on Monday night. She was the first Green party Member of Parliament in Canada. In May of this year the Greens secured a second seat when Paul Manly won a byelection in Nanaimo-Ladysmith after the NDP incumbent Sheila Malcolmson resigned to run successfully for the provincial NDP in another byelection.
On Monday night, Manly was re-elected. And while it’s not quite a green wave a third MP — Jenica Atwin — won in Fredericton, New Brunswick, just beating out the Conservative and Liberal candidates. The Liberals had held the riding for one term after beating the Conservatives.
As is the case with Wilson-Raybould, in a minority government these three Green seats have a voice.
Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie Gregoire arrive onstage for his victory speech at Liberal election headquarters at the Palais des Congress in Montreal Tuesday October 22, 2019.
In the final hours of this year’s somewhat ugly and empty election race there were still a variety of polls coming out. The 338Canada popular vote projections — based on results from traditional pollsters like Nanos, Ipsos and Abacus Data — tipped a minority Liberal government with the Liberals winning 142 seats, Conservatives 125 seats, NDP 35, Bloc Quebecois 33, two for the Greens and one independent.
It wasn’t too far off — 338Canada was correct there would be a minority Liberal government, though the Liberals won more seats than tipped, and the Conservatives fewer. It was close to bang with the Bloc Quebecois winning 32 seats and the Greens three. It even picked an independent win (Wilson-Raybould).
In B.C., 338Canada tipped the Liberals to win 10 seats, Conservatives 16 seats, NDP 14 and Greens two. The Greater Vancouver seat projection was nine Liberal, six NDP, six conservative and one independent.
On the night, the Conservatives in B.C. were able to claw back seats ending with 17 (at press time), while the Liberals and NDP each had 11, the Greens had two and Wilson-Raybould scored a win as an independent.