NDP hold onto their Vancouver Island seats, despite tough campaign
Credit to Author: Rob Shaw| Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2019 06:37:14 +0000
VICTORIA — New Democrats held their seats in their stronghold of Vancouver Island, despite tough fights in several ridings.
Two races in Greater Victoria were particularly closely watched by all parties.
In Victoria, rookie city councillor Laurel Collins held the riding for the NDP, after incumbent Murray Rankin retired.
She captured 33.7 per cent of the vote with 222 of 227 polls reporting. That was ahead of Green candidate Racelle Kooy (29.4 per cent), a member of the Samahquam First Nation, and Liberal Nikki Macdonald (22.5 per cent), a former senior adviser to Liberal prime minister Jean Chretien. Conservative Richard Caron was a distant fourth with 12.4 per cent.
“We worked really really hard,” Collins said in an interview.
“Our team was out there knocking on doors every day and I’m blown away by their dedication.
“It felt like a close fought race and I’m also really impressed in the other candidates in the other campaigns.”
Collins said she’s excited to head to Ottawa in a minority situation in which the NDP and other parties will have a voice for change.
In neighbouring Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, NDP incumbent Randall Garrison was declared winner with 34.3 per cent of the vote with 224 of 234 polls reporting.
Green candidate David Merner, a government lawyer and former Liberal candidate, mounted a strong challenge for the seat to sit at second with 26.1 per cent of the vote.
The NDP was set to hold the same five of seven Island ridings it won in the 2015 election.
Green party Leader Elizabeth May retained her Saanich—Gulf Islands seat with a decisive 48.9 per cent of the vote, with 225 of 238 polls reporting at deadline.
Green Paul Manly was also re-elected in Nanaimo—Ladysmith, a seat he won from the NDP in a byelection in May. Manly had 34.5 per cent of the vote with all 256 polls reporting, compared to 25.9 per cent for Conservative John Hirst, 23.7 per cent for New Democrat Bob Chamberlin and 13.6 per cent for Liberal Michelle Corfield.
“I’d like to thank all the voters who put their faith in me, I will not let you down,” Manly told campaign supporters.
The Greens also picked up a third seat in Atlantic Canada.
May again blasted the NDP campaign for blitzing half the households on Vancouver Island with flyers that insinuated the Greens would allow anti-abortion views within the party and supported program cuts by the Conservatives.
“We’ve done nothing but a positive campaign, we talked what we stand for and we didn’t smear other people,” May told CHEK News at her campaign headquarters. “And if the NDP have to do that to win seats, they should be ashamed of themselves.”
Voters also returned incumbent New Democrats in the Island’s two northern ridings.
Rachel Blaney, the NDP’s critic for seniors and veterans affairs, was re-elected in North Island—Powell River, with 37.8 per cent of the vote at 249 of 251 polls reporting.
Gord Johns, a former Tofino councillor, won re-election by a large margin in Courtenay—Alberni, with 41.9 per cent of the vote with 260 of 265 polls.
Voters in the suburban Victoria-area riding of Cowichan—Malahat—Langford re-elected NDP incumbent Alistair MacGregor to office with 36.1 per cent of the vote with 230 of 241 polls reporting.