The final provincial election results are in and the result is even greater for newly elected Liberal MLA Ian Paton.
After 1,712 absentee ballots were counted Monday and Tuesday by Elections BC during its final count, Paton finished with 11,123 votes compared to 10,473 after the preliminary count was released following the May 9 election.
Independent Nicholas Wong finished with 6,437 votes up slightly from his 6,050 preliminary vote total. NDP Bruce Reid also saw a slight increase finishing with 5,228 as compared to 4,800 on election night, while Green Larry Colero finished with 2,349 compared to 2,134 on election night.
BC Action Party’s Errol Sherley finished with 88 votes, an 11-vote increase from election night.
As of 2 p.m. Tuesday, the final count for Delta North was still being finalized, but elected MLA NDP Ravi Kahlon was sitting at 11,096 compared to Liberal Scott Hamilton’s 9,114 votes.
The key riding that the province was focused on is in Courtney-Comox where Liberal Jim Benniger has re-taken the lead by three votes 10,098 to 10,095 over NDP Ronna Rae-Leonard. If the Liberals hold onto that lead, it would push their seat total to 44, the necessary minimum number to achieve a majority government.
As it stands now, the Liberals hold a 43-41-seat advantage over the NDP with the Greens sitting at three.
The final count is expected to continue throughout the day and might not be finalized until Wednesday.
More to come….
