Stewart reclaims old seat for Liberals in Kelowna byelection
KELOWNA — Liberal Ben Stewart has won a byelection to replace former B.C. premier Christy Clark in the legislature.
With all but a handful of ballots to be counted, Stewart was holding a strong lead in the riding of Kelowna West late Wednesday with just under 57 per cent of the votes counted.
New Democrat Shelley Cook was in second place with 23 per cent of the vote and Robert Stupka of the B.C. Green party was third with 12.5 per cent.
Stewart’s victory win means the Liberals will have 42 seats in the legislature — one more than the governing New Democrats.
Kelowna West became vacant when Clark resigned both as leader of the B.C. Liberal Party and as the member of the legislative assembly last summer, following her party’s fall from power. Stewart, the founder of Quails’ Gate Estate Winery, had won the riding in 2013, but bowed out to allow Clark to run after she had lost the Vancouver-Point Grey riding.
The B.C. Liberals were in power for 16 years, but last May’s provincial election resulted in no party having a clear majority. Clark’s Liberals, with 42 seats to the NDP’s 41, tried to form government, but the party was defeated in a non-confidence vote.
The New Democrats struck an agreement with the B.C. Green party, where its three members would support the NDP’s legislative agenda on supply and budget issues.
The Kelowna West riding is in the heart of B.C.’s wine region, a sector caught up in the dispute between B.C. and Alberta’s two NDP governments over the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline.
Elections B.C. says more than 6,000 people cast ballots in six days of advance voting.