NanaimoNewsNOW's coverage of the 2021 Federal Election focuses on the hotly-contested Nanaimo-Ladysmith riding where five candidates are on the ballot. (submitted photos/NanaimoNewsNOW Illustration)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

VOTE 2021

LIVE: Election night results and reaction from the mid-Island

Sep 20, 2021 | 6:59 PM

NANAIMO — The polls have officially closed and counting is underway across the country.

It’s unlikely however election night will provide a winner federally, or even in some key local ridings such as Nanaimo-Ladysmith.

Follow NanaimoNewsNOW all night and in the days to come for complete local reaction as results come in. Our interactive map shows seat tallies for the federal parties, as well as riding-by-riding breakdowns.

NanaimoNewsNOW has reporters in the field, covering the Nanaimo-Ladysmith and Courtenay-Alberni ridings.

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Andrea Marantz, a spokesperson with Elections Canada, said poll workers will count all the ballots cast on Monday, along with the roughly 25,000 advance votes from each mid-Island riding.

“It isn’t until Tuesday we will count the mail-in ballots because this requires a whole verification process that has several steps to it. It’s really about the security of the vote, we need to ensure the oath is signed that’s on the mail-in ballot, we need to make sure this elector hasn’t voted by any other means.”

Marantz said 8,809 voters in Nanaimo-Ladysmith and 9,833 in Courtenay-Alberni requested mail-in ballots, however it wasn’t yet know how many were returned in time.

Political commentator David Black told NanaimoNewsNOW he doesn’t believe the issue of mail-in ballot volumes will play a massive role in the outcome, but they will delay any results.

“The issue is going to be more of a matter of COVID and whether COVID depresses the vote both in the riding and nationally,” Black said. “If we see a five or seven point drop in voter turnout, that’s going to change the dynamics in every riding. It means the ground game becomes especially important, the ability of any party to turn out its supporters in the riding.”

Black said the provincial election in B.C. in late 2020 saw a seven per cent drop in overall voter turnout.

The Nanaimo-Ladysmith riding is the only competitive one on Vancouver Island, according to Black.

He said a split between the NDP and Greens could open the door for the Conservatives, depending on the strength of support for the People’s Party of Canada.

“Absent the People’s Party presence, they’re running right now about five per cent in Nanaimo-Ladysmith, I’d say the Conservatives might well have an upset here, but it is that friction, that new competition on the right that may deny the Conservatives the pickup.”

Paul Manly and the Greens won the Nanaimo riding by nine points in 2019, while the NDP’s Gord Johns secured Courtenay-Alberni for a second term by a similar margin.

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