Conservative Cathy McLeod holds onto B.C. Interior seat despite challenge from star Liberal candidate

Cathy McLeod has extended her hold on the riding of Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo despite a challenge from star Liberal candidate Terry Lake.

She was elected with 44 per cent of the vote and thanked her volunteers after her win for all their hard work. "It's what makes democracy so vibrant and strong," she said.

McLeod also spoke about how this election has exposed a rural and urban divide with Conservatives winning many rural ridings and shutting out the Liberals in resource-reliant areas of B.C. along with all of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

She says parliamentarians have to been mindful about unity as they head to Ottawa.

"How to keep our country beautiful, how to keep our country strong and how to keep our country together," she said.

Meanwhile, Tracy Gray has brought a seat back to the Conservative Party that was won by the Liberals in 2015.

The wine store owner defeated Kelowna-Lake Country incumbent Stephen Fuhr with more than 45 per cent of the vote.

The Liberals had hoped that Terry Lake, a former provincial cabinet minister and MLA for the riding from 2009 to 2017, could wrest Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo from McLeod, who has held it since 2008.

In 2015, it was a relatively close three-way race with the Conservatives taking 35 per cent of the vote and NDP and Liberals taking about 30 per cent apiece.

The Liberals were hoping to offset projected losses on the coast with gains in the B.C. Interior, where the pipeline issue plays differently than it does in the rest of the province.

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The pipeline's construction will create jobs in the Interior and the natural resource sector plays a bigger role in the local economy there — factors Lake hoped would win him the seat.

In 2015, Stephen Fuhr quadrupled the Liberals' vote share from 2011 in Kelowna-Lake Country, taking the seat from the Conservatives.

That victory marked the first time the Liberals had won in Kelowna since 1968.

Other ridings

There were few surprises in other ridings in the Interior. Conservative incumbents easily hung on to other seats over Liberal challengers.

Bob Zimmer won the riding of Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies with more than 70 per cent of vote over Liberal candidate Mavis Erickson. He says his goal in Ottawa is to ensure resource projects for the riding.

"I'm going to be doing my best to make sure that projects like Kinder Morgan, and natural gas Canadian LNG and the softwood lumber agreement, those kinds of projects get done," he said. "I talked a lot about it in the debates and we'll keep talking about it in Ottawa."

Todd Doherty defeated Liberal Tracy Calogheros in Cariboo-Prince George.

The NDP's Richard Cannings held onto his seat in South Okanagan-West Kootenay. He narrowly defeated Conservative challenger Helena Konanz.

Cannings said the campaign was a hard fight against the Conservatives and the Green Party. He thanked his wife and family for their support during the campaign.

"It's a wonderful feeling," he said about the win. "You don't really know what's going to happen ... if all that work is going to pay off and fortunately it did." 

The NDP lost a seat to the Conservatives in Kootenay-Columbia where Rob Morrison defeated incumbent Wayne Stetski with 45 per cent of the vote.

Meanwhile, the safe NDP seat, long-held by Nathan Cullen, Skeena-Bulkley Valley, was won by new NDP candidate Taylor Bachrach. He defeated Conservative Claire ​​​​​​Rattée with 42 per cent of the vote.