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Boundary-Similkameen NDP candidate wins MLA seat

NDP Russell takes the win

UPDATE: 10:10 p.m.

NDP Roly Russell has been called as the winner in the Boundary-Similkameen riding by The Canadian Press, with 52 per cent of the votes and 48 of 98 ballot boxes reported.

Liberal Petra Veintimilla had 33 per cent of the votes as of 9:10 p.m., counting 2,090 votes compared to Russell’s 3,299.

BC Conservative candidate Darryl Seres had 798 votes and Wexit BC candidate Arlyn Greig had 144 votes.


UPDATE: 9:35 p.m.

NDP Roly Russell is taking the lead in the Boundary-Similkameen riding, with 49 per cent of the votes as ballots keep coming in.

Liberal Petra Veintimilla is falling slightly behind with 36 per cent of the votes, counting 1,047 votes compared to Russell’s 1,415. 26 of the 98 ballots boxes have been counted. 

BC Conservative candidate Darryl Seres now has 346 votes  and Wexit BC candidate Arlyn Greig is sitting with 63 votes.


UPDATE: 9:05 p.m.

The race is starting off neck and neck in the Boundary-Similkameen riding, with BC Liberal candidate Petra Veintimilla just slightly ahead of NDP Roly Russell as early results start coming in. 

With 11 of 98 ballot boxes counted, Veintimilla is ahead by just a few votes. She currently has 423 votes while Russel has 410.

BC Conservative candidate Darryl Seres holds 120 votes so far and Wexit BC candidate Arlyn Greig has 26 votes.


ORIGINAL: 7:00 p.m.

The Boundary-Similkameen riding has been called a battle-ground for a close race this election. After Liberal MLA Linda Larson retired when the election was called, the seat was left open and the riding became a key spot for the NDP’s majority pursuit.

In the 2017 election, Larson won the riding with 42 per cent of the vote, while the NDP vote for Colleen Ross came in at 32 per cent. This riding saw no returning candidates from the last election. 

The tight race is caught between Liberal candidate Petra Veintimilla, and NDP candidate Roly Russell, both of whom have been involved in rural community government. Veintimilla, a former Oliver councillor, and Russell, a former Regional District of Kootenay Boundary director, speak about their time in these offices as an advantage. 

"I think that I was blessed to get my start into this world with our local chamber of commerce which is regional, covering Oliver, Osoyoos and Okanagan Falls, and my brain is just wired for regional,” Veintimilla said. “I enjoy pulling people together, working together to solve issues instead of individualized pockets. So I'm totally ready for the challenge and I look forward to it."

On voting day, she is ready to watch the results roll in like everyone else.

“It’s been a tight race,” Veintimilla said. “We’ve worked as hard as we can, we spent the entire day knocking on doors and getting out our vote.”

Adding that she thought generally it was a good campaign.

“I think we did a good job, I think we kept things cordial, above board, positive...at this point in time I feel good.”

Russell thinks his experience helps him to be a good candidate to represent the issues of the large community in the riding. 

“Large geography is no stranger to me and that's even one of the silver linings of COVID...We can deliver engaged consultation, interactions and decision making across geography that were historically a bit of a challenge for us,” Russell said.  

Now that the campaigning is done, Russell said he’s feeling an 'interesting combination' of relief, nervousness and gratitude, but was happy with how it went.

“I'm really happy with it. We’re new to this game and it's been pretty humbling and heartwarming to see the emergence of all these volunteers across the whole region,” he said. 

“Whatever the outcome, I’m happy with the dedication of the team.” 

One significant difference in campaign strategy between the two largest provincial parties was whether to go door-knocking, Veintimilla decided to use it throughout the campaign, visiting residents in the riding and talking from a distance on the doorstep. But the BC NDP decided not to do it this year, instead Russell ran socially-distanced campaign events. 

BC Conservative candidate Darryl Seres was looking to keep a minority government in power and wanted to see elected officials properly push for the needs of their constituents. Seres said that his main issue in the riding is continuing to build community.

“We already live in a detached world, an online world, a virtual world. I think we’ve lost that sense of personal community and we need to bring that back especially after COVID. When this is all said and done we have to bring people back together. If I was to accomplish that one thing to say that the communities I represent are stronger together, are more together and are working together to accomplish the things we all want to see happen."

The Conservative party has just 19 candidates across the province, with the last election not having a conservative candidate in this riding. The conservatives only received 0.53 per cent of the votes last election. 

The Wexit BC party brought forward two candidates this year, one for the Boundary-Similkameen riding, Osoyoos resident Arlyn Greig in their first-ever provincial campaign. Greig was also un-endorsed by the Wexit party in early October, but remains on the ballot. Greig was not present for many of the candidate forums and media interviews, but joined a health care discussion on Tuesday night. She expanded on her reasons for running to be due to disagreements of cost increases by the government and a desire to see change. 

“Perhaps instead of the norm, which has leadership of BC switching between the NDP and the Liberals, voters will choose a new response this year and vote for change.”

Boundary-Similkameen is unlikely to see a definitive winner Saturday night, as it is a larger riding with a significant number of mail-in ballots. 



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