Liberal candidate in Vancouver Granville declared the winner 2 days after 2021 federal election

VANCOUVER -

Taleeb Noormohamed has recaptured the riding of Vancouver Granville for the Liberal Party, according to the CTV News Decision Desk.

The race in that riding was too close to call on election night, but Noormohamed ultimately beat NDP candidate Anjali Appadurai. He was declared the winner two days after election day, by just 258 votes.

This represents a gain for the Liberals, as the riding was previously held by an independent candidate.

The riding, at the heart of Vancouver, includes residents in several different neighbourhoods, between which the average income varies greatly, and just over half are renters, while the rest are homeowners. The riding’s average annual household income is $130,000, about 25 per cent higher than the national average.

Noormohamed is a tech executive whose real estate activity of flipping houses was exposed during the election as he campaigned on a promise of housing affordability. Meanwhile, the Conservatives’ Kailin Che is a lawyer, and the NDP’s Appadurai, is a self-described climate activist.

In interviews with CTV News Vancouver, Noormohamed refused to say how much money he’d earned from his real estate dealings, and would not commit to ceasing the practice if elected. However, he committed to supporting the Liberal Party’s plan to implement an “anti-flipping” tax on speculators who buy and sell properties within the span of a year.

The riding was formerly held by Jody Wilson-Raybould, who won as the Liberal candidate in 2015 when the riding was first created. However, she was ousted from the party after conflict erupted around the SNC-Lavalin scandal part-way through the term. In 2019, she won the riding handily as an independent with 33 per cent, while Noormohamed won only 26 per cent. The Conservatives captured 23 per cent in 2015, and the NDP came fourth with 13 per cent.