With 9,649 votes cast in his favour, Liberal MLA Jordan Sturdy will continue to represent the West Vancouver Sea to Sky riding in the BC Legislature. The outcome of the election is uncertain as of yet, with votes yet to be counted and no clear majority for either the Liberals or NDP in terms of seats.
“I’m looking forward to getting the final numbers on the riding so we can better understand what happened,” said Sturdy in a phone interview on Wednesday. “It is incumbent on me to respond to the concerns of the people who did not support me. It is my job to represent all the perspectives and I am committed to engage with people and facilitate a robust conversation.”
Support for Sturdy dropped from the previous election, while Dana Taylor won significantly more support for the Green Party. In 2013, the Green Party won 2,359 votes while this time around, 6,447 people voted in their favour.
“People did catalyze around LNG,” he said in reference to the Green surge. “But I think there was something more than that, and I want to understand the dissatisfaction better.
Support for the NDP in West Vancouver Sea-to-Sky remained relatively steady with 6,068 votes going to Bowen Islander Michelle Livaja.
Liberal Party leader Christy Clark has said that the results of this election point to the start of something different, but MLA Sturdy and the rest of the province will have to wait to find out what that something will look like. The 51,000 absentee ballots cast won’t be counted until between May 22 -24. These, alongside judicial recounts could shift the currently uncertain balance of power.
