Andrew Wilkinson is the new leader of the BC Liberals.
Wilkinson beat out Dianne Watts and Michael Lee in a tightly-fought contest that took five counts to decide.
Thanking the other candidates and party volunteers for their efforts, Wilkinson made clear to a cheering crowd at Vancouver’s Wall Centre what direction the party will go under his leadership.
“We have to respect that work and understand those values that got us here. Those values of enterprise, allowing individuals and companies and people to get ahead in our society,” Wilkinson said.
“Thinking about fiscal responsibility, that we are the party that does not spend our children’s money. And above all else — opportunity, because British Columbia has to be that shining guiding beacon that brings people from all over.”
WATCH: Andrew Wilkinson wins BC Liberal leadership
Wilkinson’s victory followed tense series of rounds vote counting, which saw candidates eliminated one by one using a ranked ballot.
Wilkinson trailed Watts and Lee through the first three counts, but gained momentum as the night went on.
Watts came out on top of the first count with 24.54 per cent of support. Lee finished second with 22 per cent and Wilkinson came in third with just over 18 per cent. Todd Stone and Mike de Jong finished fourth and fifth respectively.
Sam Sullivan dropped out of the race after finishing sixth with just 1.82 per cent of votes.
WATCH: BC Leadership vote results
De Jong exited the race on the second count. Stone was eliminated after the third count, narrowly losing out to Wilkinson.
After finishing third in the first three counts, Wilkinson edged Lee by tenths of a percentage point in the fourth count, leaving Wilkinson and Watts as the last two candidates standing.
Wilkinson’s support in the fifth and final count stood at 53 per cent while Watts finished with 47 per cent.
Fireworks to come?
The BC NDP quickly issued a statement congratulating Wilkinson on his victory, but it didn’t take long for Delta North MLA and NDP spokesperson for the night Ravi Kahlon to drop the gloves.
“We’ve got some serious issues — ICBC, BC Hydro — and Andrew Wilkinson was in the front row of all of those decisions, and so we look forward to him answering some of the questions on how things got there,” Kahlon said.
“They’ve gone all-in on their record, and what their record has been for the last 16 years, so they had an opportunity to change and try something new, and they decided to go with the same-old,” he added.
WATCH: ‘I’ve been in the trenches for a long time doing this work’: Wilkinson
That choice between a new face and the old guard was the defining characteristic of the leadership race’s final lap, according to University of the Fraser Valley political scientist Hamish Telford.
He said healing the party’s internal wounds will be one of Wilkinson’s earliest challenges.
“There are obviously a large number of people in the party who were looking for change. And he represents the establishment. He’s got to bridge that gap as well as the traditional division in the Liberal party, and that’s between liberals and conservatives, but especially urban and rural voters.”
The NDP’s willingness to so quickly attack the Liberals’ new leader, and Wilkinson’s own declaration in last month’s leaders debate that “John Horgan has a real dislike for me,” could signal fireworks to come.
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Telford said Wilkinson’s reputation as a scrappy, aggressive fighter could be a volatile mix with Premier John Horgan and Green Leader Andrew Weaver’s own brash styles.
“The legislature is going to be a highly testosterone-fuelled assembly for the next while, I think that debate, and especially question period could get quite vigorous.”
Telford said that Wilkinson may need to craft a more gentle persona if he’s looking to woo independents, or NDP and Green-leaning voters ahead of the next election.
And he said the new Liberal leader will need to start preparing for that election on day one, with the province’s minority government looking less stable as Weaver threatens the NDP over the government’s support of LNG development.
The Liberals’ field of six candidates included three veterans with deep cabinet experience, two former big city mayors and a first-time member of the legislature from Metro Vancouver.
De Jong, Wilkinson and Stone were longtime members of Clark’s cabinet.
Sullivan, a former Vancouver mayor, was appointed to cabinet in the dying days of Clark’s government last summer.
The field also included Lee, a Vancouver lawyer who was elected to the legislature last spring, and Watts, a former Conservative MP and one-time mayor of Surrey.
— With files from The Canadian Press
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