Following a tense night of head-to-head numbers, incumbent MLA Harwinder Sandhu is narrowly keeping her seat.
The NDP candidate beat Conservative Dennis Giesbrecht as the Oct. 19 election results rolled out Saturday night.
Giesbrecht and Sandhu had less than a 400 vote difference. The Conservative candidate collected 11,144 votes (41.08 per cent) while the NDP candidate garnered 11,528 (42.5 per cent).
"It's been quite the night and the race is very tight," said Sandhu.
Asked how she was feeling after hours of seeing the results trickle in in nail-biting fashion, Sandhu said her experience as a nurse steeled her for a night like this.
"I was talking to my campaign manager, Carly, that if you see me, I'm always calm," she said. "I think life had taught me because in health care, you respond to traumas, you respond to cardiac arrest ... and then slowly over time I learned from mentors in health care that as long as you've given your all, you've tried your best, sometimes outcomes are not what we want, you just do your best and that's what matters. And even now, watching these results, I was proud of the work we've done."
Despite a triumphant tone to her speech at her campaign party, Sandhu came short of declaring herself the winner of the riding.
"It's been a very interesting election, and as many have said, different than previous elections we had in the past," Sandhu told reporters around midnight, when the NDP were elected or leading in 46 ridings, the Conservatives in 45 and the Greens in two, setting the province up for an NDP minority government pending recounts in a couple very close ridings, and an influx of about 49,000 absentee and mail-in ballots that will be added to the final count, according to Elections BC.
"I think it's too tight to call but people have sent a clear message, and that's where we need to focus on," Sandhu said. "That's where we need to continue to make improvements and to do a better job for people as well and make communities safer, deliver the housing that they need and make life more affordable, and health care."
Hear from NDP鈥檚 Harwinder Sandhu, projected winner of Vernon-Lumby, at her campaign event in Vernon moments ago.
鈥� Vernon Morning Star (@VernonNews)
Sandhu said after she was elected in 2020 in a riding which historically the NDP "never won," she had "tears in her eyes" the day she first walked into the Legislature, "thinking people like me, people of colour, weren't even allowed to go into that building."
She said she's driven not to let people down, "whether they voted for me or not."
"I have no regrets about how I ran my campaign," Giesbrecht said, expecting a recount due to the close call. However, Elections B.C. has confirmed that they have not received a recount request yet from Giesbrecht.
"We are waiting on official numbers," Giesbrecht told the Morning Star.
This year, there were four candidates on the ballot in the Vernon-Lumby riding. The other two were independent candidate Kevin Acton with 4,196 votes (15.47 per cent) and Robert Johnson of the B.C. Libertarian Party with 259 votes (.95 per cent).
A total of 27,126 votes were cast.
Sandhu won the Vernon-Monashee riding for the NDP in 2020 by 424 votes, upsetting Eric Foster of the BC Liberals who was seeking a fourth straight term. It was the first time the NDP had won the riding since the 1980s, bringing an end to a lengthy period of BC Liberal dominance in the North Okanagan, as the party had held the riding since 1996, when it was then called the Okanagan-Vernon riding.
Her supporters, including Vernon mayor Victor Cumming and Coun. Kelly Fehr, gathered at the Vernon Yacht Club Saturday night. An estimated 50 people gathered for the initial results, all glued to the television watching as the results rolled in.
Giesbrecht and his supports watched the results roll in at Kelly O' Bryan's in Vernon, where Scott Anderson was present.
Conservative supporters in Vernon-Lumby watch as the results roll in....check back for the final outcome!
鈥� Vernon Morning Star (@VernonNews)
Acton and approximately 40 supporters gathered at Vernon's Okanagan Spirits around a television.
But before the results were called, with just 15 per cent (more than 4,000) of the votes, Acton conceded.
"It's not what we had hoped for. It's tough to take," the current Lumby mayor told the crowd. "I look out at the friends that are here tonight supporting me and you have no idea how touched I am (choking back tears) and how much it means to me. I'm so lucky to have a great group of friends helping me tonight.
"In my heart, I want to be the guy who says 'May the best person win,' but i can't say I'm not frustrated with what the Conservatives did. Dropping a candidate into our riding after not being successful in his own riding. He doesn't know us at all here, and has really made no effort to get to know us here. I haven't seen him here, and he hasn't made an effort to talk to me," Acton said.
"Harwinder is committed to the community. She's at every event I go to as mayor. I have a lot of respect for Harwinder."
Acton will fulfill his remaining term as Lumby mayor.
Prior to this year's election the Electoral Boundaries Commission made changes to the area, boundaries and names of B.C.'s provincial electoral districts, adding six new ridings. The new Vernon-Lumby riding differs from the previous Vernon-Monashee riding primarily in that it excludes the District of Coldstream, which is now part of the 琉璃神社-Lake Country-Coldstream riding.
There are still some out-of-district ballots being counted and the final results will be posted at B.C. Elections.
The 43rd provincial election marked the first to use a new electronic tabulation process for votes, however final counts will be by hand. That final count will happen between Oct. 26-28, which will clarify ridings that on Saturday were too close to call. If after that the difference between two or more candidates in a riding comes within 1/500th of the total votes cast, there will be a judicial recount.
