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THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
Jackie Tegart, shown above at a recent rally in her hometown of Ashcroft, is the new MLA for the Fraser-Nicola. Wendy Coomber/Ashcroft-Cache Creek Journal. (Right) NDP MLA candidate Harry Lali speaks to about 30 people at his campaign headquarters on election night. Emily Wessel/Herald
Election elation for Tegart and Liberals Jackie Tegart unseats incumbent Harry Lali for Fraser-Nicola MLA as BC Liberals win majority By Emily Wessel THE HERALD
reporter@merrittherald.com
Liberal Jackie Tegart was declared the new MLA for Fraser-Nicola on Tuesday, defeating stalwart New Democrat Harry Lali. The race between Tegart and Lali was close, with Tegart at about a 600-vote lead when she was declared the riding’s victor around 9:40 p.m. “Hol-y!” Tegart said to the Ashcroft-Cache Creek Journal. “We are so excited! As a team, we were all brand new. We’d never run a provincial election campaign, but we had a lot of heart, and I
think that showed. We ran a clean campaign and the bonus was that we won.” Tegart said she didn’t pay close attention to the polls that predicted an NDP majority, but she was concerned about how they might influence the outcome of the election. “Christy Clark was right on when she said we don’t campaign for the polls,” she said. Tegart said she felt a shift in attitude once the leader debate happened and people visually saw the difference. “We worked until the last day,” she added. “In Fraser
BY THE NUMBERS Fraser-Nicola initial count Jackie Tegart (Liberal): 5,539 Harry Lali (NDP): 4,785 John Kidder (Green Party): 1,174 Michael Beauclair (Conservative): 832 Seats in the legislature: BC Liberal Party 50 BC NDP 33 Green Party of BC 1 Independent 1 Source: Elections BC Nicola, the key was to get out into the communities.” The outcome of Fraser-Nicola was indicative of the provincial trend — what some
are calling a comeback victory for the Liberals in the province’s 40th election. Polls throughout the campaign, which kicked off mid-April, showed
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the NDP with steady and sometimes hefty leads on the Liberals. However, Global News called a Liberal majority government just after 9:40 p.m. Some people at Lali’s campaign headquarters on Quilchena Avenue shared in the surprise at the Liberal victory in the riding and throughout the province. “The provincial numbers fell, and we fell with them,” Lali told a crowd of about 30 people gathered on election night. “It was a provincial thing. The voter turnout here is low and our voters stayed at home because
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everybody thought I was a shoo-in, that the government was a shoo-in. We went down with the wave.” Lali congratulated Tegart on her victory and promised his supporters that they would take the next four years to “rebuild.” He also thanked his campaigners. “I want to thank all of you for coming out and for being part of the campaign,” he said. “The first thing I want to tell you is this: it had nothing to do with our campaign. I was just talking to some folks in headquarters as well, and all of the polling, everything, indicated
that we were going to be OK, provincially. It’s not because of anything we didn’t do.” Lali said he has no immediate plans as to what’s next, but that he will take some time off to figure out his next move. “I’m going to sleep in, relax for a few days,” Lali said. “I’ve got a couple of weddings and functions to attend. Having said that, we’ll figure out what we’re going to do afterwards, but we’re not going to worry about it right now.” Premier Christy Clark will once again lead a majority Liberal government in B.C.
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