The people of South Surrey-White Rock chose one of two names familiar to politics to represent them in Parliament on Monday night.
Liberal candidate Gordie Hogg will replace Dianne Watts, who stepped down to run for the leadership of the BC Liberal Party.
Hogg captured 47.5 per cent of the vote, defeating Conservative Kerry-Lynne Findlay by 1,617 votes.
“This is really a celebration of what you’ve done. Your commitment to, your caring, the grass roots and the process that is our democracy, which is our country, and if this is your victory, thank you so very much.”
Three other byelections took place across Canada on the same night, but the race in South Surrey-White Rock was seen as one of the most-contested races.
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The race pitted Findlay, an ex-MP for Delta-Richmond East and a former minister of national revenue, against Liberal Gordie Hogg, who had served as MLA for Surrey-White Rock from 1997 to 2017.
Hogg had previously served in various provincial cabinet roles including minister of children and family development, minister of state for mining, minister of state for ActNow BC and chair of the government caucus.
NDP candidate Jonathan Silveira previously ran to be a school trustee with Surrey Kids Matter party, which he founded. He has studied at Langara College and Simon Fraser University (SFU), where he played a key role in bringing the U-Pass to campus.
The Green Party put forward Larry Colero, who ran unsuccessfully in the previous two federal elections.
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A White Rock resident for seven years, he has taught corporate ethics at SFU’s Beedie School of Business and UBC’s Sauder School of Business.
Michael Huenefeld, the Progressive Canadian Party candidate, previously worked as a researcher in the provincial legislature and managed and coordinated numerous campaigns at the municipal, provincial and federal levels. He currently teaches business as Columbia College and SFU.
Rod Taylor, the candidate for the Christian Heritage Party, wants to address the national debt, as well as the cost of the federal bureaucracy.
Taylor ran on a platform of restoring traditional marriage and keeping schoolchildren protected from “abusive and inappropriate indoctrination disguised as education.”
Donald Wilson, the Libertarian candidate, is a family lawyer and is an advocate for smaller government and individual liberty.
Federal byelections also took place in Bonavista-Burin-Trinity, Scarborough-Agincourt and Battlefords-Lloydminster.
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