The BC Liberal Party is back to having one more seat in the legislature than the party in power, following a byelection in Kelowna West Wednesday (February 14) night.
To nobody’s surprise, Liberal candidate Ben Stewart – who was the riding’s MLA from 2009 to 2013 – handily retained the riding for the Liberals with more than twice as many votes as the NDP candidate, Shelley Cook.
Stewart won 7,692 votes – 56.46% of the vote. Cook won 3,197 (23.47%).
Green Party candidate Robert Stupka won 1,727 (12.68%), Conservative Party candidate Mark Thompson won 898 votes (6.59%) and Libertarian Party candidate Kyle Geronazzo garnered 110 votes (0.81%).
Only about half as many people voted in Wednesday’s byelection than in the 2017 general election – 13,624, compared with 26,661. In the 2017 general election, Clark took 59.05% of the vote, Cook 25.14% and Green Party candidate Robert Mellalieu 13.67%.
The byelection took place in wine country, which is now caught in a trade war between the BC and Alberta NDP governments over the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
Stewart happens to come from the wine business. His family founded and owns Quail’s Gate Winery, which is now among the B.C. wineries being boycotted by Alberta. Whether the dispute between the B.C. and Alberta NDP governments had any impact on the byelection is hard to say, said Mario Canseco, a pollsters for Insights West.
"I think it would be difficult to look into the effect of the spat with Alberta or the anointment of Andrew Wilkinson as leader as issues that contributed to the victory of the BC Liberals," he said. "Ben Stewart won fairly easily in 2009 and is a household name in Kelowna. A by-election in a different area, with a lesser-known candidate, would have been a better test."
Stewart’s victory gives the Liberals back a one-seat plurality (42) over the governing NDP (41). But thanks to a confidence and supply agreement with the Green Party, which holds three seats, the NDP-Green coalition has two more votes than the Liberals.
Originally, the Liberals had 43 seats, but after former Liberal MLA Darryl Plecas agreed to serve as Speaker of the House, he was kicked out of the Liberal Party.
Kelowna West was vacated last year by former premier Christy Clark, who resigned as both Liberal Party leader and MLA for Kelowna West, after her government lost power to a Green-NDP alliance.
Clark had won that riding – considered one of the safest Liberal seats in B.C. – thanks to Stewart, who resigned as MLA in 2013 in order to allow Clark, who had become a party leader without a seat, run in a byelection.
