Three parties battle for prize of 14 ridings on Island
All three major political parties will be paying close attention to the 14 seats on Vancouver Island tonight when the results of the B.C. election are tallied.
The B.C. NDP, which has dominated the Island in the previous three elections, needs to hold its 11 seats here and build elsewhere if it hopes to form government.
The B.C. Liberals, who were reduced to just two seats on the Island in 2013, made a concerted effort to regain ground here this time with the creation of a Vancouver Island platform.
And the B.C. Green Party, which won its first seat four years ago when Leader Andrew Weaver took Oak Bay-Gordon Head from the Liberals, hopes to build on that success by adding more Island seats.
The party leaders have paid increasing attention to key Island ridings in recent days.
Liberal Leader Christy Clark was back again Monday, stopping first in Courtenay-Comox where the retirement of Liberal MLA Don McRae opened the door for an interesting race between Ronna-Rae Leonard of the NDP, Liberal candidate Jim Benninger and Ernie Sellentin of Greens.
Clark then hopped from Courtenay to Sidney, where she campaigned briefly with Liberal candidate Stephen P. Roberts. According to polls, he is in a tight three-way race with Adam Olsen of the Greens and Gary Holman of the NDP. All three ran in the 2013 election that Holman won by just 163 votes over Roberts and 379 votes over Olsen.
Weaver also visited the riding Monday, campaigning later in the day with Olsen, who sent an email to supporters, reminding them of the closeness of the 2013 race and urging them to get out and vote.
NDP Leader John Horgan spent Monday in Surrey, but has been a frequent visitor to Island ridings. A week ago, he promised a new hospital for the Cowichan Valley in hopes of shoring up support in an NDP stronghold vacated by retiring MLA Bill Routley.
Routley polled 40 per cent of the vote in 2013 compared with nearly 35 per cent for Liberal candidate Steve Housser.
Housser is running against NDP candidate Lori Iannidinardo and Sonia Furstenau of the B.C. Green Party.
The other close-vote riding could be Esquimalt-Metchosin, where the NDP’s Maurine Karagianis is not seeking re-election. Mitzi Dean is trying to hold the seat for the NDP against a challenge from Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins of the Liberals and Green candidate Andy MacKinnon.
If advance voting statistics are any indication, there’s strong voter interest in several Island ridings this election. After six days of advance voting, 12,389 people had already cast ballots in Saanich North and the Islands — the highest total of any riding in the province, and about 27 per cent of that riding’s registered voters. The next highest totals were in Courtenay-Comox and Esquimalt-Metchosin where just over 11,000 people voted at advance polls in each riding.
In areas where there appear to be competitive races, people have made a point of voting early, said Michael Prince, a professor of social policy at the University of Victoria.