By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

All three incumbents re-elected in Nanaimo area ridings

May 9, 2017 | 10:12 PM

NANAIMO — The results in the three Nanaimo area ridings were nothing like the tense race for power in B.C.’s legislature Tuesday night.

All three incumbents were re-elected in fairly decisive decisions. That’s in stark contrast to the minority government captured by the Liberals, B.C.’s first in 65 years. The result is still too tight to declare confidently and could swing when absentee ballots are counted on May 22.

Nanaimo:

The New Democratic Party’s Leonard Krog is headed back to Victoria to represent the Nanaimo riding for a fourth consecutive term.

As of 12 a.m. Wednesday, with 90 of 98 polls reporting, Krog earned 11,002 (46%) votes. That compares to 7,827 (33%) for the Liberals Paris Gaudet and 4,704 (20%) for Kathleen Harris of the Greens.

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BC Libertarian Bill Walker managed 193 votes.

Krog credited his strong campaign team locally for helping to push him over the top. He said notable boundary changes, which carved traditional NDP supporters out of the Nanaimo riding, was a challenge his team overcame.

“The boundary change meant a 700 member loss…my team, the NDP here in Nanaimo, worked really hard to overcome that change,” Krog told NanaimoNewsNOW.

About 80 people piled into Krog’s small campaign office at Beaufort Centre. The mood was tense throughout the evening as the vote remained extremely tight.

Krog said the results speak to a broader issue of flaws in how provincial governments are elected.

“People want proportional representation whether they know it or not,” Krog said. “We should not be forming majority governments in British Columbia when you don’t have 50 per cent of the vote.”

Krog said electoral reform is a plank in the NDP’s platform.

Krog has served as opposition New Democrat MLA in the Nanaimo riding since 2005. The NDP has controlled the riding for 47 of the last 54 years.

Based on the preliminary numbers, Krog maintained exactly the same percentage of support as 2013. The Liberals are down four per cent, while the Greens nearly doubled the 10 per cent support garnered in 2013.

Parksville-Qualicum:

Liberal Michelle Stilwell’s nerves were tested a few times over the evening as the NDP’s Sue Powell took the lead on the more than one occasion while the votes rolled in.

In the end, Stilwell is headed for a second term in Victoria with a comfortable victory over Powell and the Green’s Glenn Sollitt. Based on preliminary results, with all 115 polls reporting, Stilwell earned 13,605 (45%) votes. Powell came in with 8,476 (28%), ahead of Sollitt’s 7,671 (25%) votes.

After watching the results add up from home, Stilwell thrilled a crowd of around 100 people at the Parksville Legion with her victory speech.

“I’ve done everything I can to advocate for our community and do good thing for the constituents,” Stilwell told NanaimoNewsNOW. “Hopefully this is signifying people being happy with the work that I’ve done. Sending me back to Victoria is an incredible honour, such a privilege and I can’t wait to get back there to start doing the work again.”

Stilwell served the last two years as the Liberals Minister for Social Development and Social Innovation. She said being the only Liberal MLA on Vancouver Island for the last four years has been tough. There may be one more Liberal yet on the island, with Jim Benninger losing by only nine votes to the NDP’s Ronna-Rae Leonard in Courtenay-Comox. Absentee votes won’t be counted until May 22 and the riding will reportedly be headed for an official recount.

“We need more voices in Victoria for this island so we focus on jobs, we focus on fiscal responsibility and that the island has more of a voice.”

In the 2013 election, Stilwell won the riding with 50 per cent of the vote. The NDP lost nine per cent of support in this election compared to last, while the Greens didn’t have a candidate four years ago.

Nanaimo-North Cowichan:

The NDP’s Doug Routley will be heading to Victoria for a fourth consecutive term. Routley captured the Nanaimo-North Cowichan riding in even more decisive fashion than he did four years ago, beating Liberal Alana DeLong by nearly 4,300 votes.

Based on preliminary results with all polls reporting, Routley’s 10,986 (47%) ballots compared to 6,696 (28%) for DeLong and 5,583 for Lia Versaevel (23%) of the Greens.

While Routley’s win was barely ever in doubt throughout the evening, the riding is much like the other two in the Nanaimo area with the fact the Green Party garnered a lot of support.

In 2013, Routley won the riding by 3,857 ballots and earned 46 per cent of the vote. The Liberals support dropped two per cent, while the Greens jumped a whopping 10 per cent compared to four years ago.

island-news@jpbg.ca

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