Election 2019: A look at how B.C. voted
Credit to Author: Tiffany Crawford| Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2019 14:22:55 +0000
In British Columbia, there were a few close races overnight, with voters choosing Conservative in a couple of toss up ridings.
Finally, the Conservatives took the lead in the province with 17 seats, followed by the Liberals and the NDP, tied with 11 seats.
One of the closest races was in Port Moody-Coquitlam, where Conservative Nelly Shin narrowly won with 16,588 votes, just 333 votes more than NDP candidate Bonita Zarillo at 16,255 votes. Liberal candidate Sara Badiei was in a close third with 15,409 votes.
Conservative Nelly Shin won in Port Moody-Coquitlam with just over 300 votes.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May held on to their seats in B.C., while Independent candidate Jody Wilson Raybould, who was ousted by the Liberal Party during the SNC Lavelin scandal, won in her Vancouver-Granville riding.
Voter turnout in B.C. was 65 per cent, according to early results from Elections Canada. This was down from 70 per cent voter turnout in the province in 2015, but still higher than 2011, when the the voter turnout in B.C. was just 59 per cent.
Singh won 35.7 per cent of the vote in Burnaby South, beating Conservative Jay Shin by 2,876 votes, while May had a strong lead in Stanch-Gulf Island with 48.8 per cent, or 32,326 votes.
The federal Liberals lost some ground in B.C. In 2015, they held 17 of B.C.’s 42 seats going into election night. They have now been reduced to 11.
The party held on to key Metro Vancouver ridings including Vancouver Quadra, Vancouver South, Vancouver Centre, North Vancouver, West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country, Burnaby North-Seymour, Delta, Surrey Centre, Surrey-Newton, Fleetwood-Port Kells and Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam.
This is a screen shot from Elections Canada showing how people voted in B.C. in the federal election 2019.
The Conservatives took several key ridings back from the Liberals, including South Surrey-White Rock, where Kerry-Lynne Findlay defeated incumbent Liberal candidate Gordie Hogg with 24,044 votes to Hogg’s 21,319.
The Conservatives also took back seats in Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge, where Marc Dalton won with 36.3 per cent, Mission-Matsui-Fraser Canyon with 42.1 per cent, and Kelowna-Lake Country with 45. 7per cent.
Both ridings in Richmond went to the Tories. Conservative Alice Wong won her fourth term with 18,791 votes to Liberal candidate Steven Kou’s 10,824 votes, while there was a surprising turn of events in Steveston-Richmond East where Conservative Kenny Chiu defeated Liberal incumbent Joe Peschisolido. Chiu came in strong with 17,193 votes to Peschisolido’s 14,397.
More to come…
ticrawford@postmedia.com
-With files from Postmedia and The Canadian Press