Incumbent Liberal MP Patrick Weiler held his seat in West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country riding on election day, April 28, sticking to polling predictions from 338 Canada and making history as the first Liberal to be elected back-to-back-to-back in the riding.
While the results initially flipped back and forth between blue and red, as time went on, Weiler pulled ahead of his main competitor, the Conservative Party's Keith Roy, and all other names on the ballot.
Pique reached him by phone at his campaign headquarters in West Vancouver shortly after the results came in.
“I'm over the moon about the results," Weiler said. "The trust and faith people in this riding have put in me is humbling and I couldn't be more excited to serve the riding."
Weiler is the first-ever Liberal re-elected in the riding, and the first to be elected three times in a row.
“The vibe was incredible, it was packed. Everybody is really happy with results in the riding and across the country. It was a touching moment to see family and friends here, and those who've become my friends and family,” Weiler said when asked how the evening went at his campaign headquarters.
Nationally, Weiler's Liberals are projected to form a minority government, with Prime Minister Mark Carney at the helm, leading or elected in 167 ridings to the Conservative Party's 145, the Bloc Quebecois's 23, the NDP's seven and the Green Party's one.
The national results were unexpected six months ago, a fact not lost on Weiler.
“Six months ago everything looked very different but I never lost faith in our party," he said. "I knew we were the party with the best chances to deal with what we are in now. Mark Carney is the best leader and we have a plan. I knew this wasn't going to be easy. This riding is diverse, it's huge, but we put together an incredible group of people and you can see the results."
His first steps for his third term are to focus on the issues that matter to voters here.
No. 1 is making sure to focus on issues important to people in our riding, ensuring we get “more housing, affordable housing in our riding, build a really strong economy so people don't get let behind and make sure we have the strongest defence for whats coming south of the border, weather that's provincial trade barriers or diversifying economy, that's critical," Weiler said. "I look forward to working with Mark Carney and our team to make that happen.”
And while not every ballot cast had his name checked, Weiler also took a moment to say he hears the issues that matter to all residents of West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country.
“Whether people voted for me or didn't, I'll be their member of Parliament and be their voice. I take to heart the issues other parties ran on and I will do everything in my power to represent them,” he said.
“This is an incredible, humbling experience. I couldn't be more excited by it.”
As of about 11 p.m. on election day, with 227 of 231 polls reporting, Weiler led Roy 33,269 to 19,031. The Green Party's Lauren Greenlaw was third with 2,019 votes, followed by the NDP's Jäger Rosenberg with 1,888, the PPC's Peyman Askari with 277, and the Rhino Party's Gordon Jeffrey with 89.
Roy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
On the environment, Indigenous rights and electoral reform
Greenlaw congratulated Weiler but felt the election could have gone another way.
"I hope he knows that he won this off of the backs of the Greens, because the number of people who told me that they have a green heart or that they bleed green, but they’re voting liberal because he’s green Liberal, which is not a thing. With those votes, I would have won this election. And this election was run on just the temperature of fear. It was a strong fear about tariffs, fear about the conservatives, and also hate, a lot of hate towards people and that was a really difficult thing to experience," she said, shortly after the win was called for Weiler.
She added the short election campaign "completely benefits the large parties and the incumbents."
She also pointed out that the environment and Indigenous rights did not have a focus in the campaign.
"Last night, as I was driving home from the Earth Day Festival in Roberts Creek, which was so beautiful and amazing, I saw my first ever forest fire in our foothills. And that was the last day of this campaign, a campaign where nobody cared about climate change," Greenlaw said.
She also said it became more clear to her during the campaign how much Canada needs electoral reform.
"This election, like I said, was driven by fear and by hate," Greenlaw said. "You either fear the Conservatives, which I think is fair, or you hate the Liberals because they’ve lied, which I think is fair, and if we had electoral reform, we would potentially be able to feed these young parties and feed these small parties so that they have voices."
She pointed out that Weiler said in the Squamish debate that he would advocate for electoral reform, so that is her expectation.
Green Party co-leader Elizabeth May was declared winner of her riding, Saanich–Gulf Islands, with 38.8 per cent of the vote as of about 10:45 p.m.
Greenlaw was relieved to see the win.
"I was reading the polls this morning, and it's very vague how these polls are put together. But I was really worried that we wouldn't even have one seat ... because it was looking like we were all going to lose," she said.
"It did not look good for Elizabeth May. So I'm very thankful [she kept her seat] because in this election, it's been completely dictated by people voting Conservative because they hate the liberals, and people voting Liberal because they're scared of Conservatives and the Greens are in there offering an alternative voice."
Green Party co-leader Jonathan Pedneault was, however, declared defeated in the Montreal riding of Outremont. Liberal cabinet minister Rachel Bendayan is projected to win that seat for the fourth time.
-Indigo Lemay-Conway
NDP loses official party status
As NDP leader Jagmeet Singh lost his seat in Burnaby Central, coming in third in his riding with 18 per cent of the vote and conceding not only the election but stepping down as party leader Monday night, Gibsons-raised Rosenberg says he was standing behind him.
“Our party's continuing on. We're really good at rebuilding and I think, sometimes you need to get punched a little bit to figure out your stuff,” said Rosenberg, talking from NDP headquarters in Burnaby. “And I think we're going to rebuild and build back stronger.”
As of 10:40 p.m., the first-time federal candidate was in fourth place in West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country, with 3.3 per cent of the vote. Rosenberg called the result “definitely disappointing.”
“It wasn't the result we were hoping for. But I mean, given situation of the race, I'm still quite happy with the campaign I ran.
“I'm 18 years old. I know a lot of people kind of get caught up on that, but when I had the opportunity to connect with voters directly, I think there was a real like of what I was having to say. It's just with such a short campaign, we didn't really have time to connect with most voters, so they ended up voting for a Prime Minister instead of a local candidate.”
Rosenberg congratulated Weiler. “He has a lot of work to do and he has some high expectations to serve, but I hope he does it,” said Rosenberg. “I know his heart’s in the right place, even if we don’t agree on everything. So I hope he does a good job as MP.”
Rosenberg said he’s considering running for office in the future (even teasing a municipal run). “I'm not going anywhere either way. I'm going to keep being active, and I'm going to keep advocating for important issues like environment and mental health that really need strong advocates because they're so often under-covered.”
Though the NDP, as results stand as of 10:40 p.m., has lost party status (which requires 12 seats in the House of Commons), its seven MPs stand to play a key role in a possible minority government. Asked what he’ll be looking for from his colleagues heading to Ottawa, Rosenberg said, electoral reform.
“We need to really have hardball when it comes to electoral reform, because the Liberals are never going to do it on their own,” said Rosenberg. “We've seen with this election how easy it can be to get stuck in a two-party system, and once that happens, democracy is doomed.
“We need to really push that forward, so all votes count equally, and so people aren't forced to vote out of fear, and they can vote for who they want.”
“It's going to be a hard fight to rebuild the party, but I'm optimistic about the future of the party,” said Rosenberg. “I think we need a complete rebrand and maybe even a name change, and we need to look into working with the Greens more closely. But we outperformed expectations. We held together, and we have some really good MPs that are going back to Ottawa, and we need to make sure that we appreciate Canadians’ votes, and we can't ever take it for granted.”
-Bronwyn Beairsto
