Kelowna-Lake Country Liberal incumbent Norm Letnick was the first to be declared elected Tuesday night during the B.C. election, but he joins other party members in expressing concern for a Liberal minority government.
“I’m a little nervous about the minority government situation,” Letnick said following his acceptance speech in Kelowna.
The Liberals need 44 seats to secure a majority in the legislature. As of 10:51 p.m. Tuesday, the party were leading in 42 ridings as were the NDP. The Green Party was leading in three seats.
“I hope we find that one more seat and have a majority government moving forward for the next four years. It will make it easier to get things done.”
Letnick said his decisive win, garnering almost three times as many votes as his NDP competitor, shows the riding is confident in his work.
“We’ve worked hard to deliver on the priorities of our citizens for the last 8 years we have a lot more work to do and I’m certainly glad to have the confidence to do it,” Letnick said.
“I’m so happy to have the privilege of serving for the next four years.”
With 93/95 polls reporting, Letnick had 12,839 votes, the NDP’s Erik Olesen had 4,515 with Green Party candidate garnering 4,208 votes.
Shortly after Steve Thomson was also declared a winner, re-elected for his third term as well.
When asked how the win feels, Thomson said he’s “very excited, but also very honoured and humbled to continue to have the confidence of the constituents of Kelowna mission to represent them in Victoria.”
The crowd again erupted in cheers when Christy Clark was declared victorious in the Kelowna-West riding. Clark was not in the Okanagan, but instead took in the election results with her son in Vancouver.
While the Okanagan retained its Liberal dominance, the race across B.C. is still too close to call.