Conservative Cathy McLeod has been re-elected in the riding of Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo.
For the last 11 years, McLeod has served the people of Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo, but she faced perhaps her toughest contest yet in 2019.
Terry Lake, the former mayor of Kamloops and high-ranking minister in former B.C. premier Christy Clark’s cabinet, made a concerted bid for the riding on the part of the Liberals, but fell short.
McLeod earned 44.7 per cent of the vote while Lake finished with 27.3 per cent.
A Liberal hasn’t served Kamloops since 1979, but the party did make significant gains four years ago, and Lake had hoped to build off that momentum.
The NDP’s Cynthia Egli finished a distant third. Dock Currie has been nominated as the NDP candidate but was booted after controversial social media posts surfaced.
McLeod won the seat in 2015 with 24,595 votes (35.3 per cent), beating New Democrat Bill Sundhu, who tallied 21,466 votes (30.8 per cent). The Liberals finished third, with candidate Steve Powrie registering a significant breakthrough with 21,215 votes (30.4 per cent), up from just 5.3 per cent for the party in 2011.
Candidates
Conservative: Cathy McLeod
Liberal: Terry Lake
NDP: Cynthia Egli
Green: Iain Currie
People’s Party of Canada: Kenneth Finlayson
Animal Protection Party: Kira Cheeseborough
Communist: Peter Kerek
Geography
The riding covers the city of Kamloops and part of the surrounding areas.
Demographics
European 96,170 79.5 per cent
Aboriginal 14,220 11.8 per cent
South Asian 2,615 2.2 per cent
Chinese 1,360 1.1 per cent