The BC Conservatives have managed an historic win on the North Island, after a close race during last night’s provincial election.
Anna Kindy defeated the NDP’s incumbent Michele Babchuk by 682 votes, taking just over a 47% share of the vote compared to Babchuk’s 45%. Green Party candidate Nic Dedaluk took 8% of the final vote tally.
Kindy says that she wants to work on finding common ground for everyone in the North Island riding to make positive change, whether she ends up in government, or in opposition.
“One of the things that I think is extremely important is to find common ground, and I think we can do that,” she said Sunday morning. “I think we all want the same thing ultimately for our constituents and for people in the North Island riding, is to change where the changes need to be.”
Overall, the NDP hold a razor-thin lead with 46 ridings, the Conservatives have 45. Either party will need 47 to form a majority. The BC Greens have won two ridings.
The North Island has been an NDP stronghold since 2005, when the incumbent BC Liberal candidate was defeated by an NDP newcomer. This is the first time a Conservative candidate has captured the riding.
Kindy says one of her first priorities will be to look at improving health care in the region, which has been plagued by doctor shortages and ER closures in the north for years. Campbell River has also seen all of its walk-in clinics close in the last year. Kindy says fixing health care is going to take a lot of time and effort.
She also wants to focus on the resource industries which help drive local economies.
Some of the resource industries, I think that can be addressed a lot more quickly,” she said. “Our guys and gals need to know that their jobs are secure. And that just means a few policy changes, as I see it.”
Meanwhile some ridings are so close the final results may depend on out-of-district votes that still have to be tallied, the final count will be done by October 26.
