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Strahl holds Chilliwack-Hope for Conservatives Greg Knill, Jessica Peters The Progress Mark Strahl has hung on to his seat in Ottawa. But he’ll be moving to the opposition benches following his Conservative party’s stinging defeat to the Liberal Party on Monday. In a result that stunned many, the Liberals claimed 184 ridings – more than enough to eclipse the NDP and form the next majority government. The Liberal’s march to victory started in the Atlantic provinces, where they claimed all 32 seats. It continued westward, prompting the CBC to project a Liberal government 20 minutes before the polls even closed in B.C. The early results cast a cloud over Strahl’s campaign party at the Best Western Hotel in Chilliwack. The mood lifted as numbers from the Chilliwack-Hope riding began to trickle in. But a Conservative victory wasn’t assured until almost 9 p.m. With all the polls counted, Strahl garnered with 21,315 votes (42.4 per cent). Liberal Louis De Jaeger was 4,350 votes back in second with 16,965 (33.7 per cent). The NDP’s Seonaigh MacPherson was a distant third with 9,148 votes (18.2 per cent) Voter turn out was 71.3 per cent. (The numbers are still not official.) Strahl, speaking to supporters after they had watched Prime Minister Stephen Harper concede defeat, acknowledge the struggle the party faced this time around. Continued: LIBERALS/ p5
Chilliwack - Hope Thomas Cheney (Green Party) 2,386 - 4.7 % Louis De Jaeger (Liberal) 16,965 - 33.7% Alexander Johnson (Libertarian) 416 - 0.8% Seonaigh MacPherson (NDP) 9,148 - 18.2% Dorothy-Jean O’Donnell (Marxist-Leninist) 82 - 0.2% Mark Strahl (Conservative) 21,315 - 42.4% Total number of valid votes: 50,312 Polls Reporting: 198 of 198 (100%) Voter Turnout: 50,312 of 71,703 registered electors (70%) – does not include electors who registered on election day. Population: 92,734 Number of electors on list: 71,703 Source: Elections Canada
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Conservative candidate Mark Strahl is greeted by supporters following his re-election in Monday’s federal election. Although Strahl won the riding of Chilliwack-Hope, his party was soundly beaten by the Liberal Party of Canada. GREG KNILL/ PROGRESS
Liberal gains reach to B.C. in majority win Tom Fletcher Black Press Prime Minister-elect Justin Trudeau extended his majority government even into the B.C. Interior Monday, as Liberal Stephen Fuhr knocked off Conservative incumbent Ron Cannan in Kelowna-Lake Country. Trudeau thanked supporters in his Montreal riding, and began preparations to implement his new government policies after nine and a half years of Conservative rule in Ottawa. “For three years we had a very old-fashioned strategy,” Trudeau said. “We met with and talked with as many Canadians as we could, and we listened.”
Major commitments by the Liberal campaign include legalizing recreational marijuana sales and running three years of deficits to build infrastructure across the country. Trudeau has also promised to scrap the Conservative government’s approval for the Northern Gateway pipeline and enforce a ban on oil tanker traffic on B.C.’s north coast. The Conservative Party issued a statement that Stephen Harper would resign as leader but would stay on as MP in his Calgary riding, where he won a seventh term. “While tonight’s result is not what we had hope for, the Canadian people are never wrong,” Harper told supporters, adding his con-
gratulations to Trudeau. On Vancouver Island, seventime Conservative MP John Duncan was knocked off by NDP challenger Gord Johns in Courtenay-Alberni, one of the new seats created for the 2015 election. While the Liberals picked up several Lower Mainland seats, traditional voting patterns held up in much of the province. Conservatives Cathy McLeod (Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo) and Mel Arnold (North OkanaganShuswap) won their seats. In Victoria, NDP incumbent Murray Rankin held off a challenge from the Green Party’s Jo-Ann Roberts in a seat where the Liberal candidate resigned over inappropriate comments on
social media. Green Party leader Elizabeth May was re-elected in Saanich-Gulf Islands. The NDP held the B.C. coast, with Rachel Blaney winning North Island-Powell River and veteran North Coast NDP MP Nathan Cullen re-elected in SkeenaBulkley Valley.
Prime Minister-elect Justin Trudeau
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