Erin O’Toole’s Conservatives appear to have ermerged the biggest losers in last night’s federal election when it comes to B.C.
While the final tally is not yet in, and mail-in ballots could change things, with 99% of the polls reporting by Tuesday morning, the Conservatives appear to have lost the two Richmond ridings to the Liberals, and Port-Moody Coquitlam to the NDP.
The Conservatives may have also lost Cloverdale-Langley to the Liberals, although that vote is still very close, with the Liberal candidate, John Aldag just 2.3% ahead of Conservative incumbent Tamara Jansen.
Liberal candidate Parm Bains clearly beat Conservative incumbent Kenny Chiu in Steveston-Richmond East, winning 42.8% of the votes to Chiu’s 33.4%, as of Tuesday morning.
Things are bit tighter in Richmond Centre, where Liberal Wilson Miao won 39.4% to Conservative incumbent Alice Wong’s 37.1%. In Port Moody Coquitlam, NDP candidate Bonita Zarrillo won 36.7% of the vote to Conservative incumbent Nelly Shin’s 32.3%.
As for the Green Party, Elizabeth May won her riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands handily, while Green incumbent Paul Manley may have lost his riding of Nanaimo-Ladysmith to NDP candidate Lisa Marie Barron. That riding is tight, with the NDP at 29.1%, Conservatives 27.5% and Greens 24.7%, with 264 of 265 polls reporting.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh won his seat in Burnaby South, and several Liberal incumbents held onto their seats in Greater Vancouver ridings, including Jonathan Wilkinson (North Vancouver), Terry Beech (Burnaby North Seymour), Joyce Murray (Vancouver Quadra), Ken Hardie (Fleetwood-Port Kells), Hedy Fry (Vancouver Centre), Harjit Sajjan (Vancouver South), Sukh Dhaliwal (Surrey-Newton) and Randeep Sarai (Surrey Centre).
The Conservatives appear to have held most of their seats outside the Lower Mainland, in the B.C. North, Interior, and Fraser Valley. Skeena-Bulkley Valley is the one north riding not held by the Conservatives. It has been held by the NDP.
Conservative incumbents have retained Abbotsford, Langley-Aldergrove, Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon, and Chiliwack-Hope.
The NDP predictably appear to have held onto their five Vancouver Island seats. One close Island riding is North Island-Powell River, where NDP incumbent Rachel Blaney has just a 2.6% lead over her Conservative rival, Shelley Downey.
Ridings still too close to call include Vancouver Granville -- vacated by independent Jody Wilson-Raybould, a former Liberal attorney general. Liberal candidate Taleeb Noormohamed may have won that seat back for the Liberals, although it is still too close to call. With 202 of 203 polls reporting as of Tuesday morning, Noormohamed had a meagre 0.5% lead over NDP candidate Anjali Appadurai.
