Burnaby North battleground falls easily to NDP's Routledge
Large margin of victory secures win as Liberals lose all four area ridings
All four provincial ridings in Burnaby went NDP in 2017, and Saturday night was no different.
The battleground was expected to be Burnaby North, which the NDP took in 2017 after the Liberals had won it in four straight elections.
But it wasn't even close. After Saturday's initial count, Janet Routledge of the NDP led Liberal Raymond Dong by 3,291 votes.
Her margin of victory was huge. Routledge had 7,410 votes, or 56.4 per cent of the total. Dong had 4,119 votes, or 31.3 per cent, while Green Norine Shim had 1,611 votes, or 12.3 per cent.
Routledge said she was “honoured” by the resounding support she received.
“Part of my approach, my message, was that if you vote for the B.C. NDP you're voting for yourself,” said Routledge, who was the NDP's deputy whip in the Horgan government.
“That vote means you deserve a decent life, and your family deserves a decent life, and your neighbours deserve a decent life. That's what I think that vote represents.”
The NDP's Anne Kang cruised to victory in Burnaby-Deer Lake, leading by 2,283 votes after Saturday's count.
Kang also had a big winning percentage, 55.2 per cent compared to 32.5 per cent for Liberal Glynnis Chan and 12.34 per cent for Green Mehreen Chaudry. In terms of votes, Kang had 5,558, Chan had 3,275 and Chaudry had 1,244.
Kang was the Minister of Citizens' Services in the NDP administration. She was a longtime Burnaby councillor before going provincial. The NDP have now won the riding every time since it was created in 2009.
The NDP's Katrina Chen had a healthy lead in Burnaby-Lougheed, up 4,110 votes after Saturday. Chen was the Minister of State for Child Care in the NDP government.
Chen had 7,669 votes, or 58.1 per cent of the vote, compared to 3,559 votes and 27.0 per cent for Liberal Tariq Malik. Andrew Williamson of the Greens had 1,737 votes and 13.2 per cent. Libertarian Dominique Paynter had 240 votes, or 1.8 per cent.
Burnaby Edmonds was the last Burnaby riding to post votes, but the NDP went into the lead immediately and never looked back, the NDP's Raj Chouhan leading the Liberals' Tripat Atwal by 3,789 votes.
That vote means you deserve a decent life, and your family deserves a decent life, and your neighbours deserve a decent life.
This was Chouhan's fifth straight victory. Chouhan was the deputy speaker in the last parliament.
Chouhan had 6,861 votes, or 61.2 per cent of the total. Atwal had 3,072 votes, or 27.4 per cent, while Green Iqbal Parekh had 1,270 votes, which was 11.3 per cent of the total.
The asterisk in the results so far is that about one-fifth of the registered voters in Burnaby requested mail-in ballots, which won't be counted for 13 days. Burnaby North had the most mail-in requests, with 9,623 out of 43,418 registered voters, or 22.2 per cent. Burnaby Lougheed had 8,530 requests, which is 21.7 per cent out of 39,349 registered voters.
Burnaby Deer Lake had 6,786 requests (18.2 per cent of 37,220 registered voters) and Burnaby Edmonds had 7,232 (17.9 per cent of 40,347).