B.C.’s most senior MLA has been re-elected for his fifth term.
Ralph Sultan, who will soon celebrate his 84th birthday, has been re-elected in West Vancouver-Capilano with 12,215 votes, 57.74 per cent of the popular vote. The NDP’s Mehdi Russel followed with 4,874 (23.04 per cent) and Green Party candidate Michael Markwick finished with 4,067 (19.22 per cent).
Sultan said he’s greeting the win with “a sense of relief that I lived up to people’s expectations.”
He gave a speech thanking his supporters, and congratulating his challengers on running a clean campaign.
Sultan and his supporters celebrated the win with cookies and non-alcoholic punch. “It’s not what you’d call a wild party,” he chuckled.
As the Liberals and NDP still battled to see who would form government and to see whether the Green Party would hold the balance of power, Sultan said it’s too early to speculate on what might happen. “Anything’s possible in politics,” he said. “We may not know the results until tomorrow.”
Earlier in the evening, Sultan reflected on his fifth election campaign, saying knocking on doors in the riding, “You certainly find out whether people think the government’s done a good job or should be out of office.”
Sultan said housing was a key issue – even in affluent West Vancouver-Capilano. Many voters weren’t happy with the way they’ve seen their neighbourhoods change as offshore buyers have driven up property values, he said.
“People get upset by rapid change.”
Sultan described his career in politics after a lifetime in the world of business as “a crash course in humanity.”
Despite an impressive resume and educational background, Sultan has largely found himself shut out of cabinet. He didn’t further his cause when he famously refused to step aside so Premier Christy Clark could run in his riding.
But Sultan said not being a minister has also been a blessing, giving him the freedom to work on issues important to his constituents. “My constituents seem to prefer it that way,” he said.
Sultan is pragmatic about the reasons for his consistent winning streak in West Vancouver-Capilano.
“I like to think it’s my charm and intelligence,”he said. “But it’s very much driven by demographics of the riding itself.”
Sultan said he doesn’t think about his age, although he’s heard that he may soon be the oldest sitting MLA in the country.
“I don’t think about it at all,” he said. “I get up every morning and do my job. It’s not a factor in my world.”
Nor will he say when he might decide to call it a day on politics, although he acknowledged, “by the end of my term of office, I’ll be approaching 88.”
“That’s a tough call,” he said. “They say, ‘Never say never.’”
Sultan said his adult children will be coming up from the United States to help celebrate this week.
He added he planned to spend the days following the election tidying up in advance of their arrival. “The house is a mess.”
Having garnered 19 per cent of the vote, Green Party candidate Michael Markwick was ebullient with the prospect the Green Party could hold decisive votes in the legislature.
Any party looking for support for the Greens must agree to bring an immediate halt to what Markwick dubbed: “the Wild West of B.C. election rules.”
“The deal-breaker is the whole business about donations from corporations or unions,” he said.
Markwick also promised the Green Party will exercise their influence “maybe even disproportionately,” over the next four years.
The election indicates a “sea change” in B.C. politics, according to the Capilano University professor.
“Even here, the B.C. Liberal plurality is shrinking,” he said, noting Sultan’s comfortable margin of victory dropped about 10 per cent.
Markwick said he plans to stay with the Green Party.
“We’re not recycling our signs,” he promised. “Our signs are going to stay in my shed.”
While the NDP and Green parties only managed 42 per cent of the votes between them, Russel said they could have won the riding if they united.
While the two parties share “lots of values”, the split between them will continue to benefit the Liberals, according to Russel.
While West Vancouver-Capilano remained a Liberal stronghold, Russel said he detected a shift, “particularly with the young people. They’re thinking differently compared to their parents.”
Russel presented a congratulatory bouquet to Sultan in person after the votes were counted Tuesday night.
While the campaign was contentious, Russel was determined to end on a sweet note, explaining his decision to deliver a bouquet “with lots of red flowers” to Sultan’s campaign office.
“There are ways to co-operate with each other and at the end, it’s the people who matter.”
The Liberals have dominated in the riding for decades, with Sultan winning four previous elections including a 2013 landslide in which Sultan snagged 67 per cent of the vote – the highest percentage in the province.
Approximately 56 per cent of the riding’s eligible voters cast ballots on Tuesday, down slightly from 60 per cent in the 2013 election.
The NDP hasn’t notched more than 23.5 per cent of the vote in the riding since 1991. The Green Party’s previous best showing in the riding was a 13.7 per cent finish in 2001.
All results are unofficial until certified by Elections BC.
–with files from Jeremy Shepherd
