The Hook

The Hook Blog

Political News. Freshly caught. A Tyee Blog

Election Central

Vancouver Island votes a rock: returning incumbents

On Vancouver Island voters returned five out of six incumbents to Ottawa.

Catherine Bell lost in Vancouver Island North to former Conservative MP John Duncan by almost 3,000 votes. In 2006 she beat him by just 616 votes, and the riding was expected to be one of the closest in B.C. this time.

In Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca, the final count had Liberal incumbent Keith Martin just 68 votes ahead of Conservative Troy DeSouza. DeSouza finished third in the riding in 2006. [Update: An error in this paragraph was corrected on Oct. 15.]

The other four ridings were won handily by incumbents. The Conservatives held on with James Lunney in Nanaimo-Alberni and Gary Lunn in Saanich-Gulf Islands. The NDP kept two seats, Denise Savoie's in Victoria and Jean Crowder's in Nanaimo-Cowichan.

Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee's Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. You can reach him here.

2  Comments:

Login or register to post comments

  • Dave2

    3 years ago

    Well, it's hardly "Final" then

    In Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca, the final count had Liberal incumbent Keith Martin just 68 votes ahead of Conservative Troy DeSouza with many polls still to report.

  • Andrew MacLeod

    3 years ago

    You're right

    That sentence should have ended with DeSouza. I plead late night bleariness.

    • No best comments selected by an editor for this story yet. To see all comments, click the All Comments tab, above.
    • The discussion for this story is closed. No more comments can be added.

    Democratic Trust

    About The Hook

    As British Columbia and other jurisdictions consider allowing online voting, can it be made secure enough that people will trust it? Will it encourage more people to vote? But if something goes wrong, will it further erode people's confidence in their democracies? And what role is the media likely to play in shaping the debate?

    These are among the issues to be considered at a May 26 discussion that Fair Voting BC and PartyX are hosting at The Hive in Vancouver. I'll be on the panel, along with UBC Law's Fathima Cader and SFU computer scientist Steve Wolfman. The results and recommendations are to inform the two organizations' public positions on online voting.

    Meanwhile join me and other contributors on The Hook as we bring you the latest from B.C. and across Canada.

    -- Andrew MacLeod