Updated: Provincial Election – some new and familiar faces in the valley

Three weeks after the Provincial Election, we know that the BC NDP and Green parties intend to work together in a minority government. On May 30, the parties released their joint agreement, outlining the foundations of their alliance and the key policies they intend to work on. Before we get to a new government, Premier Clark will call the legislature together for a confidence vote (in which all MLAs will vote on whether they support the Liberal government continuing), probably before the end of June. She fully expects to lose this vote. At that point, the Lieutenant Governor will be able to ask the NDP and Green parties to form government. It’s not yet known when that new government would call the next legislative session or deliver their proposed budget.

See BCREA’s comments on “What Will the NDP-Green Alliance Mean for Real Estate?” on the BCREA Blog.

“We look forward to working with any political party that forms the next provincial government to promote consumer protection and housing affordability within our region,” says President Gopal Sahota.

“The Government Relations committee will continue to meet with elected officials regularly including the newly-elected MLAs, many of whom they have already met during the 10 pre-election meetings and candidate forums they supported on behalf of the Board.”

Final election results:

In Maple Ridge-Mission, BC Liberal incumbent candidate Marc Dalton lost his seat to BC NDP candidate Bob D’Eith by 322 votes. The previously BC Liberal-held ridings in Abbotsford/Mission remained virtually unchanged.

In Langley, the two former cabinet ministers Rich Coleman and Mary Polak were easily re-elected.

Newcomer BC NDP candidate Ravi Kahlon beat incumbent BC Liberal candidate Scott Hamilton by 2,146 votes in Delta North.

The most action happened in Surrey’s nine ridings.

• A former MLA (BC NDP’s Jagrup Brar) and a former MP (BC NDP’s Jinny Sims) were elected in Surrey-Fleetwood (taking over from former BC Liberal cabinet minister Peter Fassbender) and in Surrey-Panorama.
• Former BC Liberal cabinet minister Stephanie Cadieux won her seat in Surrey-South while BC NDP incumbents Harry Bains (Surrey-Newton) and Bruce Ralston (Surrey-Whalley) managed to keep their seats easily.
• BC Liberal incumbent Marvin Hunt was successful in Surrey-Cloverdale but BC NDP newcomers Rachna Singh and Garry Begg won the seats in Surrey-Green Timbers and Surrey-Guildford.
• BC Liberal newcomer Tracy Redies took over from former BC Liberal MLA and cabinet minister Gordon Hogg as he retired from politics in his riding of Surrey-White Rock.

Here are the final election results from Elections BC (as of May 24, 2017) for all 16 ridings in our Board areas:

Riding:	NDP candidate #votes	Liberal candidate #votes	Green #votes
Abbotsford-Mission	Andrew Murray Christie 7,339	ELECTED Simon John Gibson 12,879	Jennifer Holmes 4,297
Abbotsford-South	Jasleen Arora 6,297	ELECTED Darryl Plecas 11,673	William Aird Flavelle 3,338
Abbotsford-West	Preet Rai 6,474	ELECTED Michael de Jong 11,618	Kevin Allan Eastwood 2,280
Maple Ridge-Mission	ELECTED Bob D’Eith 10,988	Marc Dalton 10,663	Peter Pak Chiu Tam 3,467
Langley-East	Inder Johal 8,820	ELECTED Rich Coleman 16,348	Bill Masse 4,968
Langley	Gail Chaddock-Costello 8,384	ELECTED Mary Polak 10,755	Elizabeth Helen Walker 3,699
Delta North	ELECTED Ravi Kahlon 11,465	Scott Hamilton 9,319	Jacquie Miller 2,697
Surrey-Cloverdale	Rebecca Smith 9,763	ELECTED Marvin Hunt 11,918	Aleksandra Muniak 3,091
Surrey-Fleetwood	ELECTED Jagrup Brar 11,085	Peter Fassbender 7,413	Tim Binnema 2,190
Surrey-Green Timbers	ELECTED Rachna Singh 8,945	Brenda Joy Locke 5,056	Saira Aujla 1,112
Surrey-Guildford	ELECTED Garry Begg 9,262	Amrik Virk 7,015	Jodi Murphy 1,840
Surrey-Newton	ELECTED Harry Bains 9,744	Gurminder Singh Parihar 5,100	Richard Krieger 1,171
Surrey-Panorama	ELECTED Jinny Sims 12,226	Puneet Sandhar 10,064	Veronica Laurel Greer 1,620
Surrey-South	Jonathan Silveira 8,718	ELECTED Stephanie Cadieux 13,509	Pascal Tremblay 3,141
Surrey-Whalley	ELECTED Bruce Ralston 10,315	Sargy Chima 5,293	Rita Anne Fromholt 1,893
Surrey-White Rock	Niovi Patsicakis 8,648	ELECTED Tracy Redies 14,101	Bill Marshall 4,574