Liberal Patrick Weiler holds onto West Vancouver riding after hard-fought campaign

Vancouver -

Liberal incumbent Patrick Weiler has once again held onto his seat in the competitive riding of West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country, according to the CTV News Decision Desk.

Weiler had secured about 35 per cent of counted votes by 10:30 p.m., with 72 per cent of polls reporting, putting him four percentage points ahead of the Conservatives' John Weston.

Star NDP candidate Avi Lewis, a documentary filmmaker married to famous author and activist Naomi Klein, was in third with 26 per cent of the vote following a spirited campaign.

Lewis benefited from an endorsement by U.S. congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but was ultimately unable to pull ahead in the riding, which the Liberals have now won for three elections in a row.

The NPD has yet to win West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country since it was created in 1997.

Weston represented the riding from 2008 to 2015, when he was unseated by Liberal candidate Pamela Goldsmith-Jones. Weiler took over in 2019 when Goldsmith-Jones decided not to run for re-election.

The Liberal incumbent, an environmental and natural resource management lawyer, has cited climate change and the need to embrace clean energy as part of his motivation for entering politics.

The Liberal platform includes a goal of bringing the oil and gas sector to net-zero emissions by 2050.

According to an early estimate from Elections Canada, some 22,422 people voted in advance in the riding, an increase of about 15 per cent from the last general election.

Nearly 8,000 residents requested mail-in ballots as well, though it's unclear how many of those packages were returned.