The Liberals’ sweeping election victory Monday continued into B.C., where the party stole a swath of seats from the outgoing Conservatives.
After winning just two B.C. seats in the 2011 election, the Grits have claimed 17 of B.C.’s 42 ridings. Those gains were made largely at the Tories’ expense.
B.C. Premier Christy Clark congratulated Justin Trudeau in a tweet, saying she was looking forward to building a better British Columbia and Canada.
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson echoed that sentiment saying, he looked forward to working with the Prime Minister-Designate, as well as the Liberal and New Democrat victors in Vancouver’s six ridings. Robertson is hoping to make headway with the incoming PM on the issues of climate change and transit.
Elections Canada says voter turnout reached a record 68.5 per cent. Close to 17.6 million people voted – a turnout that hasn’t been seen since the 1993 victory of fellow Liberal Jean Chretien.
Red tide in B.C.
The Liberal red surge in B.C. saw the biggest seat gain in the province in more than four decades.
Jonathan Wilkinson unseated Conservative incumbent Andrew Saxton in North Vancouver, and Ken Hardie, a former TransLink spokesman, managed to defeat Tory MP Nina Grewal in a surprise upset in Fleetwood-Port Kells.
Liberals also beat Conservative incumbents in Vancouver-South, Kelowna-Lake Country, and West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea-to-Sky Country.
In Delta, Carla Qualtrough had an upset of her own, besting the Conservatives' Minister of National Revenue Kerry-Lynne Findlay.
“This is an incredibly special moment for me,” Qualtrough told CTV News.
“Delta clearly wanted change, they clearly wanted a different vision for our country and their community and I hope to deliver that for them.”
Grit incumbent Hedy Fry is going back to Ottawa for an eighth term. She told CTV News the huge Liberal gains are thanks to their party leader.
“Justin offered a vision that gave them the sense that they could move beyond this – that they can have a vision again,” Fry said. “That we can dream together as a country. That we could come together and take this county and make it what all of us have dreamed Canada could be.”
Incumbent Joyce Murray, who held on to her seat in Vancouver Quadra, credited the Liberal win on "a lot of hard work."
Murray called their campaign effort aggressive, but not showy, with a "strong platform on environment, long-term wellbeing and economic wellbeing."
Liberal Jody Wilson-Raybould took Vancouver-Granville, one of the province’s six new ridings.
Wilson-Raybould said while it’s hard to pinpoint an issue or event that turned the Liberal tide, she says people really gravitated to the idea that the party would invest in infrastructure to boost the economy.
“To invest in our country -- to invest in people. That’s the distinction between out plan and other plans,” she told CTV News.
“Our plan for real change is resonating with people right across the riding.”
Conservative 'bittersweep' wins
Meanwhile, the Conservatives, who won a whopping 21 seats in the last election, were only elected in 11 ridings.
Ed Fast in Abbotsford and Mark Strahl in Chilliwack held onto their seats, and the Tories took several other ridings in B.C.’s Interior.
Star candidate Dianne Watts, the popular former mayor of Surrey, also eked out a win in South Surrey-White Rock against former Surrey city councillor Judy Higginbotham.
The MP-elect called her victory "bittersweet" in light of the Conservatives' losses.
"You know what, I always look for the silver lining in everything," Watts said.
"I think it's an opportunity to really review what's going on with the party. I think it's an opportunity to evolve and change."
Vancouver Island goes orange
Green Leader Elizabeth May won in her Saanich-Gulf Islands riding, but is once again the party's only elected representative.
The NDP bucked what’s being dubbed the “Orange Crash” across much of Canada by holding onto or winning every riding on Vancouver Island, save for May's.
Incumbent Victoria MP Murray Rankin handily defeated challenger former broadcaster Jo-Ann Roberts in what was predicted to be a close race.
“I want to say something. I am so proud of Tom Mulcair and all our team in Ottawa,” Rankin said to a cheering crowd at his headquarters in Victoria.
“Our fight continues, our cause endures and the Canada of our dreams is still within reach.”
Roberts, the Green candidate, said she was disappointed in the results, and that voters likely believed voting out Stephen Harper was more important than voting for a local candidate.
The strangest turn in that race was the fact Cheryl Thomas still received thousands of votes: The Liberal candidate withdrew from the race late last month over controversial Facebook posts. Her name was still on the ballot because the deadline for withdrawing had already passed.
NDP candidates Peter Julian in New Westminster-Burnaby and Don Davies in Vancouver-Kingsway were also re-elected, and Jenny Kwan, the former B.C. NDP MLA, took the Vancouver-East riding formerly held by Libby Davies.
