Saanich North and the Islands (SNI) voters chose a Green candidate for the third straight provincial election, as Rob Botterell of Pender Island got the nod from 36 per cent of the electorate in preliminary results.
“It’s a great night,” said Botterell at 10 p.m. Saturday when only a couple of polls remained to be counted but he had a four per cent lead over the NDP’s Sarah Riddell. “It’s a real honour to be elected as the Green MLA for Saanich North and the Islands.”
“I really want to make a point of giving a big shout out and congratulations to the other candidates,” he added. “I think we’ve all run really proper campaigns and this is what democracy is all about.”
Botterell also thanked all of his volunteers, including those on Salt Spring who “have worked tirelessly over the last couple of months to introduce me to the community and give me an opportunity to make the case for voting for me.”
With 27 of 29 polls counted, the SNI results were:
Rob Botterell, Green: 11,834 votes (36.03 per cent);
Sarah Riddell, NDP: 10,527 votes (32.05 per cent);
David Busch, Conservative: 9,864 votes (30.03 per cent);
Amy Haysom, Independent: 619 votes (1.88 per cent).
As of 10:30 p.m. Saturday, NDP candidates were elected or leading in 46 seats province-wide, the Conservatives in 45 seats and the Greens two. However, a number of seats are still in play. The Conservatives and NDP traded the lead spot throughout the night.
While Green Party of BC leader Sonia Furstenau was not elected in Victoria-Beacon Hill, the West Vancouver-Sea to Sky riding also went Green with candidate Jeremy Valeriote, so the Greens will have official party status in the BC Legislature — and quite possibly the balance of power.
The SNI riding saw the highest number of advance poll voters, at 18,277, from a total of 48,787 voters registered as of Oct. 7.
Preliminary voter turnout province-wide was 53.81 per cent.
Check back for updates to this story, or see the Oct. 23 issue of the Driftwood newspaper.