Liberal incumbent Eric Foster has clinched his third term in the riding of Vernon-Monashee.
Foster, the former mayor of Lumby, beat his closest rival, NDP candidate Barry Dorval, by just over 4,400 votes with 99/119 polls reporting.
Foster has 11,072, Barry Charles Dorval with the NDP has 6,669 votes.
Tuesday night, Foster celebrated his win with supporters at Vernon’s Schubert Centre.
“Somebody told me once if you weren’t nervous on a day like this, you’re not really in the game,” Foster said. “Yes. I was nervous.”
Foster said the first person he called Tuesday night after being declared the winner was his mom in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
But with the votes still being counted and a Liberal majority yet to be called, Foster, like other party faithful, remain nervous.
“I’d like to see us with quite a few (more seats) if we can squeeze them out,” Foster said.
“I’ve been the (BC) Government (Caucus) Whip for the last six years. I’d hate to go in there with a majority of three or four. It would be a dog fight all the time.”
During the last election, Foster won handily. He captured 46 per cent of the votes while the NDP candidate earned 34 per cent. When Foster was first elected in 2009 the vote was much closer. In that election he won by 1,317 votes. Foster received 37 per cent support compared to the NDP’s 32 per cent.
During the campaign Foster identified housing as the biggest issue facing the riding and promised to put a new MRI machine in the hospital.
The Green Party candidate Keli Westgate is coming in third with 4821 votes, while Libertarian Don Jefcoat has 273 votes with 20 more polls to be counted.
– with files from Global News
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