Projected Green seat flipped to Liberals following tightest race in B.C.
Liberal Jordan Sturdy has won West Vancouver-Sea To Sky by just 41 votes
If anything's been learned from the election south of the border it's not to call winners early, and not to dismiss the influence of mail-in ballots.
Like the U.S., B.C. is also seeing a twist or two as 660,000 absentee and mail in ballots from the provincial election are finally counted this weekend.
In the riding of West Vancouver-Sea to Sky, projected Green Party winner Jeremy Valeriote has lost to Liberal Jordan Sturdy by a margin of just 41 votes — the tightest race in the province.
Valeriote was heralded as a Green breakthrough and the first party candidate to be elected on the mainland after leading by over 600 votes at the close of election night on Oct. 24. Sturdy will hold on to the riding now that all votes have been counted, according to results from Elections B.C. on Saturday
The margin is slim enough to trigger an automatic judicial recount which will be scheduled in the coming days. Sturdy has received 9,216 votes to Valeriote's 9,175.
I'd like to thank the voters of West Van-Sea to Sky for their commitment to democracy and our province. The results in our riding are very close, requiring an automatic recount. No matter the final outcome, I am so proud of our Green campaign and the values we represented.
—@JValeriote74In Abbotsford-Mission, the NDP's Pam Alexis has flipped the seat, defeating incumbent Simon Gibson by 744 votes in what was considered a safe riding for the B.C. Liberals.
Alexis, the mayor of Mission, received 10,364 votes to Gibson's 9,620, with mail-in votes pushing her to overtake Gibson's election night lead.
Throness loses
In Chilliwack-Kent, Kelli Paddon of the NDP has unseated incumbent Laurie Throness by 1,300 votes.
I just called our new MLA Kelli Paddon to congratulate her on her convincing victory in Chilliwack-Kent, to wish her every success as she serves her constituents, and to offer her all my assistance in the transition! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/bcpoli?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#bcpoli</a>
—@LaurieThronessThroness resigned from the Liberal Party and ran as an independent less than two weeks before the election after causing an uproar for comparing free contraception programs to eugenics.
In Richmond-South Centre, Henry Yao of the NDP has finished 179 votes ahead of Liberal Alexa Loo.
In Vernon-Monashee, Liberal incumbent Eric Foster saw a 200 vote lead flip to a 282 vote deficit to newcomer Harwinder Sandhu of the NDP as of Saturday night.
Heading into Sunday, the NDP had won 56 confirmed seats. The B.C. Liberals have 27 and the Greens two.
Elections BC is aiming to finish counting the 660,000 mail-in and absentee ballots by late Sunday to reach a final count for all ridings.