Weaver coasts to re-election and sees Greens boost seat count

Andrew Weaver cruised to a second straight election win in Oak Bay-Gordon Head, and he will be joined by two more Green Party members in the legislature.

Weaver, a former University of Victoria professor who has been prominent in the international climate-science community, had hoped his 2013 election win — which made him B.C.’s first Green MLA — would pave the way for his party to grow this time around.

Preliminary results showed he would be joined by former interim leader Adam Olsen, who was running in Saanich North and the Islands.

Weaver had said that he wouldn’t continue beyond one more term if more Green MLAs didn’t materialize.

Weaver was already well known for his academic work when he decided to head into provincial politics in 2013, defeating incumbent Liberal Ida Chong. His many academic accomplishments include being part of a research team that won a Nobel Prize in 2007 for its work on climate change.

As an MLA, he earned considerable attention for filing private member’s bills to require postsecondary institutions to have policies on sexualized violence and misconduct, and for preventing employers from making women wear high heels at work.

Weaver was acclaimed as leader of the B.C. Green Party in December 2015, taking over from Olsen.

The previous party leader, Jane Sterk, persuaded him to try his hand at politics, but it took her four tries to do it.

Weaver said he didn’t step into a leadership role right away after his 2013 win because he wanted to first focus on building an election platform, recruiting candidates and raising money.

In second place Tuesday was Bryce Casavant of the NDP. Liberal candidate and lawyer Alex Dutton trailed both.

Casavant made a name for himself in 2015 when he was working as a conservation officer and refused to kill two bear cubs whose mother had been put down in Port Hardy. His resulting suspension garnered huge opposition and led to an online petition backed by over 300,000 people.

He was originally considering a run for the Courtenay-Comox riding, but ended up moving south and deciding on Oak Bay-Gordon Head.

Rounding out the Oak BayGordon Head slate were Jin YangRiley of the Vancouver Island Party and Xaanja Ganja Free of the 4BC Party.

Weaver’s parents, John and Ludmilla, joined the crowd at the Green Party headquarters at the Delta Ocean Pointe on Tuesday night.

John said he and Ludmilla hoped that more than one Green MLA would be elected. “The perfect sceniario, of course, would be for them to get the balance of power.”