As the final vote tallies suggest that a minority government will be taking hold of B.C., the MLA who won the Sea to Sky riding is getting ready to take a more collaborative approach to the legislature.
Jordan Sturdy of the BC Liberals was re-elected to represent Squamish, managing to get 9,600 votes, about 42 per cent.
Sturdy won the riding in 2013 by taking about 52 per cent of the vote.
“It’ll be a new world,” said Sturdy after his win Tuesday night, referring to the possibility of a minority government. “This hasn’t happened in over 50 or 60 years now. It’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out.”
He said his time as mayor of Pemberton has prepared him to work with others.
It’s a skill that will probably be useful, as minority governments require co-operation between parties to pass legislation.
As of press time, the vote is too close to call, and it will probably be awhile before the provincewide winner is confirmed. However, media projections forecast a BC Liberal minority government, with the NDP trailing by just a handful of seats. The Greens are expected to win three spots in the legislature, up from one in the previous election. Absentee ballots and advance votes cast outside their ridings have yet to be counted, and recounts in some areas may also sway the results.
Mindful of the surge in Green support in the riding, Sturdy says that making improvements to the provincial Environmental Assessment process will be a top priority.
The assessment process was decried by many activists, following the approval of the Woodfibre liquefied natural gas facility in the Squamish area.
“I think it’s important people have confidence in process and in government,” he said. “We have to work harder to earn that.”
Indeed, the Greens experienced a surge in popularity in the Sea to Sky riding this election, snagging 6,400 votes – about 29 per cent. It was a noticeable improvement over 2013, where the group received only 11 per cent of the vote in the area.
The BC NDP trailed closely at third, capturing the 6,000 votes that represented 27 per cent of the ballots cast.
It was an accomplishment not lost on Green Sea to Sky candidate Dana Taylor.
“It was a good run and lots of great people along the way,” he said late Tuesday night. “I think Sea to Sky is changing and we helped to prove that, and it satisfied my overall feeling which got me motivated to begin with, which is this is a lot greener riding than these numbers show.”
NDP candidate Michelle Livaja said the message she got from the good showing her party and the Greens saw in the Sea to Sky was that there is a movement for change centred around the Woodfibre LNG plant.
“I think there’s a clear message from the riding that people are not happy with the current state of affairs,” she said. “Up and down that riding I talked to people and they are not happy about the idea of LNG and Woodfibre in the Sound and they don’t feel that the government is listening to them.”
As voting day kicked off, Squamish residents headed to the polls at Brennan Park Recreation Centre to pick which one of five candidates would represent the riding.
The BC Liberals, the Greens, the BC NDP, the Libertarians and an independent were all on the Sea to Sky riding ballot.
In Squamish, MLA candidates appeared to take a cautious approach to campaigning.
Save for a handful of BC Liberals sightings, there didn’t appear to be an ongoing door-to-door effort to engage locals.
Squamish Mayor Patricia Heintzman noted that she was somewhat surprised how little time each of the candidates seemed to spend in Squamish.
Furthermore, the late arrival of several candidates made for a more placid campaign.
While Sturdy was acclaimed as BC Liberal Candidate for West Vancouver-Sea to Sky on June 9, his opposition was very delayed. Both the Green Party and the NDP announced their candidates after the Liberals had ramped up their campaigning. The Greens threw Taylor’s hat in the ring on March 14, while Livaja joined the campaign for the NDP on April 3.
“The lack of candidates until the very last minute, I think really didn’t create that real competitive buzz if you want to really engage the electorate,” Heintzman said.
Furthermore, during the town’s all candidates debate, the MLA hopefuls didn’t appear to be set on taking any risks, often sticking to their parties’ platforms.
Incumbent candidate Sturdy continued to promote his party as the group that would make the right choices for the economy.
Citing the balanced budgets and solid credit ratings he says the Liberals attained during their tenure in office, he told Squamites that his group would be good for jobs and the economy – an often-repeated line by party leader Christy Clark.
Sturdy also said the BC Liberals committed $900 million in affordable housing units, which he called the biggest single one-time investment to that cause.
Some of this money, he said, would be distributed to Squamish through BC Housing. The BC Liberal candidate voiced his support for a regional transit system, saying that his party has already committed its share of funds to support such a project.
Livaja made it a point to emphasize the NDP’s promise of $10-a-day daycare, which would be accompanied by the creation of 69,000 early childhood education jobs to offset increased demand. She also trumpeted her party’s promise to build 114,000 housing units, when asked about the increasing costliness of homes in Squamish. Livaja also pointed out the construction would create another 96,000 jobs.
For regional transit, she floated the idea of adding buses.
Taylor said he and the Green Party would oppose the controversial Woodfibre LNG project, making his group the only one to promise banning the facility– a sure way to court the environmental vote. He also said he would explore the idea of co-op housing as a means to solve Squamish’s housing crunch. Taylor mentioned he was supportive of regional transit, but said he would hold off on any major decisions and wait for the release of a study in September.
Across the province, the election took on a cutthroat tone – in some cases, there were even reports of a so-called “troll truck” manned by Liberals that would park outside NDP gatherings to display attack ads. In the debates, the opposition tried to paint BC NDP leader John Horgan as a man who couldn’t control his temper.
On the other hand, BC Liberals were attacked for receiving what some alleged to be illegal donations from Woodfibre LNG.
The party’s taste for contributions also came under fire months earlier in a New York Times article that called B.C. the “Wild West” of political donations. All through this, the Greens managed to position themselves as the alternative to the status quo.
