A banner of Liberal red was hoisted over West Vancouver Monday night as former mayor Pamela Goldsmith-Jones was elected for the party, beating two-term incumbent Conservative MP John Weston in what has traditionally been a Conservative stronghold.
Goldsmith-Jones took the riding with 35,818 votes – almost 55 per cent - to Weston’s 17,191 -26 per cent, according to preliminary results from Elections Canada.
Before cheering supporters amid a sea of red in West Vancouver, Goldsmith-Jones called being elected “the greatest honour of my life” and “a tremendous responsibility.”
Goldsmith-Jones added she has a “deep respect for our system of government” and its ability to be “a force for good.”
“Responsible government means parliament is accountable to the people, not a party, not a leader,” she said. “We stayed on the high road,” she told supporters, adding that people had voted against the “politics of fear and division. … It’s not what Canadians believe in.”
“Why did the Canadian cross the road?” she asked at one point during her victory speech. “To get to the middle. Voters in our riding found the middle … that is our greatest strength.”
Goldsmith-Jones said she expected to speak with Justin Trudeau soon, adding she was excited about the “fresh approach to government” that 150 new MPs will bring.
Renewing democracy, environmental protection and investment in communities are among the priorities voters told her they cared about during the campaign, she said.
The party in the Liberal camp began with a small group early in the evening but swelled to over 100 as results began to roll in. Party supporters – many of them dressed in red and sporting
Pamela Goldsmith-Jones buttons – snacked on canapes and drank red wine as they waited.
“Look at that map!” exclaimed supporter Jane Sikorski, as a TV graphic showed the Liberal seats in red across the country.
“It’s a red tide sweeping the nation,” said supporter John Henderson of North Vancouver. “It shows you how upset people are with Harper in general.”
“It’s like a big ice jam. Once it starts moving, everything starts flowing,” said supporter Glenn Sigurdson. “It’s a huge rejection of Harper.”
Gail Lyne, another supporter, added, “I guess the pollsters were wrong. Everyone expected it to be much closer.”
She said Conservatives lost because they ran “a mean-spirited election (campaign.)”
Weston, who lost his seat Monday night after two terms in office, met Goldsmith-Jones at her campaign office around 9:30 p.m. to offer his congratulations.
Among his own supporters, “everyone’s disappointed, both at the national results and at our results,” he said in a phone interview.
Weston said he thought a lot of the Liberal votes were votes “against something – against the prime minister or against the national party.”
“I have some difficulty understanding why such a fine record in areas of such high priority was rebuked by people,” he said.
But “The voters have spoken. They clearly have opted for change,” he said. “Everyone, including I, have to respect that.”
Weston said he’s thankful for having had the chance to serve the public and proud of his work on private members’ bills and in getting several of his initiatives included in the budget.
He added he plans to pass along files about constituency business to Goldsmith-Jones to help in the transition to a new MP.
It was also a disappointing night for both the NDP and Green Party candidates, both of whom did worse at the ballot box than pollsters had predicted. The NDP earned 6,372 votes - just under 10 per cent - in the riding while the Greens took 5,821 votes - just under nine per cent.
NDP candidate Larry Koopman said he was surprised at the numbers of people who were “fixated on strategic voting,” which he said was a big factor in the riding. “It surprised me how much strength there was in that – strategic voting,”
“I think there was such opposition to Harper and the Conservatives that people would do anything. They would vote against their party – which they did – many of our members obviously didn’t vote for our party,” he said.
Koopman acknowledged it was also a disappointing drop nationally for the NDP from the last election. “But the voters have decided, this is our democracy and I accept it.”
Green Party candidate Ken Melamed also hinted at strategic voting as a reason for his disappointing finish.
“People were desperate. They were so desperate and they were so devoid of any hope for any risk taking, they went to the safest place that they could possibly go,” he said. “We have to respect what they chose.”
A total of 65,485 out of 89,459 eligible voters cast ballots in the riding, for a turnout of 73.2 per cent. That’s above the national turnout of 68.49 per cent and the provincial turnout of 70.36 per cent.
That number is expected to go higher in the final count because preliminary numbers don’t include voters who registered on election day.
- with files from Jennifer Thuncher/Squamish Chief and Jacob Roberts/Coast Reporter
