Linda Larson re-elected
OLIVER — Unlike many of her caucus colleagues across the province, Liberal MLA Linda Larson cruised to a comparatively easy win in Boundary-Similkameen on Tuesday.
Supporters gathered at a scenic winery in rural Oliver erupted in celebration shortly after 9 p.m. when one of the TV networks declared her elected.
With 75 of 95 polls reporting shortly after 10 p.m., Larson led NDP candidate Colleen Ross 6,324 votes to 4,455.
Independent candidate Dr. Peter Entwistle was in a strong third position with 2,257 and the Green Party’s Vonnie Lavers trailed with 1,458 votes.
“I’m glad that the voters in this riding … agree that a strong economy and jobs are important,” Larson said in a media scrum shortly after she was declared elected.
“I like to think that what I’ve done (as an MLA) has been appreciated,” she said.
Larson said one of the first things she will do upon returning to Victoria is ask to continue as chair of the committee looking into funding for rural schools in the province. She said the work of the group is about half-way done and “I’d like to see it finished.”
As the night wore on and the province-wide result remained in doubt, Larson said, “I am keeping fingers crossed that we will prevail and for the sake of the province that we will prevail.”
Ross is an organic farmer and one-term city councillor from Grand Forks. She describes herself as an environmental and social justice activist. She had agreed to speak by phone, but after the results were known her campaign wasn’t answering.
Entwistle is an Oliver physician who entered the campaign in late March shortly after resigning as chief of staff at the South Okanagan General Hospital (SOGH).
He told an on-line news site at the time: “I feel really strongly about health care issues and I feel that this is an opportunity to address the local issues of hospital beds and ER closures. Also, to bring health into a broader context throughout the province and just to raise those issues. There’s a lot of things wrong with our health-care system.”
On Tuesday he was busy pulling a night shift at the SOGH and was unable to break to comment on the outcome.
Larson is former councillor and mayor in Oliver. She was elected to the legislature in the 2013 general election after then-incumbent John Slater was denied the nomination by the governing Liberal party.
Green Party candidate Lavers, who lives in Kelowna, could not be reached. It turns out she’s a bit of mystery to her party as well.
The receptionist at Green Party head- quarters said Tuesday Lavers is the only one of the party’s candidates who has not supplied a contact number. “She’s been a bit missing in action. … We don’t really know what’s going on.”
Boundary-Similkameen is a large rural riding bordered on the south by Washington State. It extends from just west of Princeton on the west to just east of Christina Lake on the east. The main population centres are Keremeos, Osoyoos, Oliver and Grand Forks.