The BC Liberal Party will retain the Kelowna-Mission riding.
Renee Merrifield will take over former BC Liberal Steve Thomson’s seat, which he held for the past 11 years.
As of 11 p.m., preliminary results show Merrifield has earned 9,234 of the riding’s 17,758 counted votes with 112 of 114 polls reporting. BC NDP candidate Krystal Smith received 5,335 votes while BC Green Party candidate Amanda Poon earned 3,189.
Merrifield spoke to media from her doorstep shortly after being declared the winner of the Kelowna-Mission riding for the BC Liberal Party.
She says she’s “overwhelmed and humbled” at the amount of support that she’s received in this whirlwind election.
“Most of all, I feel optimistic,” she said on Saturday evening. “I really believe that we in the Okanagan need a sustainable future and an economic future and I’m going to advocate for that.”
As a BC NDP majority government is projected, Merrifield said she won’t be an opposition MLA to just sit back and “twiddle her thumbs.”
“The role of opposition is to hold government to account; to be that voice that calls into question some of their actions, some of their decisions,” she said. “We have some major issues coming down the pipeline.”
As of Oct. 23, 9,512 vote-by-mail packages had been issued to registered voters in the riding. There are a total of 50,150 registered voters in Kelowna-Mission.
Provincewide, 724,279 mail-in ballots have been sent out, and there are 3,485,858 registered voters.
Mail-in ballots will be counted by hand, starting in 13 days.
READ MORE: ELECTION 2020: Live blog from B.C. party headquarters
Do you have something to add to this story, or something else we should report on? Email: michael.rodriguez@kelownacapnews.com
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