Absentee ballots reinforce wins by Liberals in Kelowna ridings
While local winners certain, outcome of provincial election may not be known for weeks
And the winners are . . . the same as they were on May 9.
Final election results for the three Kelowna area ridings were released Tuesday by Elections BC.
While the release of the final results was eagerly anticipated in other parts of B.C., given the closeness of the initial count on election night, there were no surprises locally.
Here, the addition of absentee ballots — primarily those cast by mail, outside a voter’s home riding or at a care facility — simply served to confirm the overwhelming victories by the three Liberal incumbents. In Kelowna-Mission, the final count showed Liberal Steve Thomson with 15,399 votes, up from 13,985 on election night.
While Thomson gained 1,414 votes with the addition of the absentee ballots, Harwinder Sandhu of the NDP gained only 618 votes, for a total of 5,720.
Thompson finished with 57.2 per cent of all votes, Sandhu had 21.2 per cent, Rainer Wilkins of the Greens had 14.2 per cent and BC Conservative Chuck Hardy had 7.3 per cent.
In Kelowna-Lake Country, Liberal Norm Letnick’s final vote tally was 15,286, up 1,452 from election night. He finished with 59.7 per cent of the vote, compared to 20.9 per cent for the NDP’s Erik Olesen and 19.3 per cent for Green candidate Alison Shaw.
In Kelowna West, Liberal Leader Christy Clark’s final vote count was 15,674, up 1,115 from the initial count. She won 59 per cent of the vote, while NDP candidate Shelley Cook drew 25.1 per cent and Robert Mellalieu of the Greens won 13.7 per cent.
Provincewide, the final count in the election will be known today, but the possibility of a judicial recount means the actual outcome might not be known for weeks.
The race between the Liberals and New Democrats in one key Vancouver Island riding swung back and forth on Tuesday.
The latest ballot count in the hotly contested Courtenay-Comox riding showed a 101-vote lead for New Democrat Ronna-Rae Leonard over Liberal Jim Benninger. Earlier, Benninger was ahead by three votes after starting the day 13 behind.
At stake is a one-seat Liberal majority if Benninger wins. But if Leonard wins, there could be a Liberal or NDP minority government with the support of the Green party in the 87-seat legislature.
After the May 9 election, the Liberals had 43 seats, the NDP 41 and the Greens had three seats.
On election night, Leonard was ahead by nine votes in Courtenay-Comox.
“Where they stand now, it’s a possibility there will be a judicial recount,” said Elections BC spokesman Andrew Watson.
Elections BC did a recount in Courtenay-Comox before it began counting absentee ballots. Almost 180,000 absentee votes are being tallied provincewide as part of the agency’s final count, which must be completed today.
An application for a judicial recount must be filed with the Supreme Court of British Columbia within six days of the final result being declared.
“Within 72 hours after an application has been filed, the courts, if the application is approved, must set the date and time and the place for the judicial recount to occur, and that must be set no later than eight days after that time,” said Watson.
The results of the judicial recount are subject to an appeal to the B.C. Court of Appeal, he said. An appeal must be filed within two days of the judicial recount, and the result of the appeal must be determined within 10 days.
“Since 1995, when the Election Act came into force, there’s been four judicial recounts and none of them have gone to an appeal,” Watson said.
The final vote counting was still underway in several B.C. ridings. Liberal candidate Jas Johal was declared the winner in Richmond-Queensborough by a margin of 134 votes.
As the counting continued, several groups opposed to the Site C hydroelectric dam and the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion called for a pact between the New Democrats and Greens if the final results produce a minority government.
A wide range of social, environmental and First Nations groups say the election result represents a chance for the two political movements to work together as a unified force.
“We have a unique and historic moment in the history of B.C. to change the course of history,” said Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of B.C. Chiefs.
About 50 people were at the legislature to present an online petition signed by 25,000 people since the election.
Carole James, a former NDP leader, and Sonia Furstenau, a newly elected member of the legislature for the Greens, accepted the petition asking the two parties to cooperate.
James and Furstenau declined comment about negotiations that are underway between the two parties.
“I’m not going to get into specifics,” said James. “We’re in discussions. I’m going to leave it at that.”
NDP Leader John Horgan has said his party and the Greens share political similarities when it comes to introducing reforms to the electoral system and campaign financing. The two parties are also opposed to the Kinder Morgan pipeline project and the Site C dam.
Green Leader Andrew Weaver has said there are more similarities between the Greens and NDP on major issues, but that didn’t preclude his party from working with the Liberals.