Arnold wins in North Okanagan Shuswap

Conservative incumbent Mel Arnold held a victory party in Vernon Monday night, after winning the North Okanagan-Shuswap riding for the second time.

Looking tired but jubilant, Arnold credited his win to the huge number of volunteers who helped with the campaign.

“We had so many more volunteers out, It was an incredible number, hundreds of volunteers, that made such a difference and gave me the energy to keep going day after day,” Arnold told Vernon Matters. “The real hard work is over so we can relax for a few days but I look forward to getting right back into my seat and my office and looking after the people of North Okanagan Shuswap.”

Interview with Mel Arnold who has been declared the winner of the North Okanagan Shuswap riding #vernonbc pic.twitter.com/mmuRJNsJWB

— Vernon Matters (@VernonMattersca) October 22, 2019

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Arnold said the biggest issue of the campaign was affordability.

“People are finding it harder to get by,” said Arnold, acknowledging he could once again sit in opposition against a Liberal minority government, depending on what he said will be “negotiations between the parties and leaders over the next few days.”

“I’ve been in opposition for four years and part of that role is holding the government to account. With a far lower number of Liberal seats this time, they’re not going to be able to push legislation through the way they did in the previous government. They had a large majority, they were able to bulldoze their way through a lot of legislation. I think that will change, if they actually form government,” Arnold told Vernon Matters.

With 180 of 286 polls in and more than 34-thousand votes counted, results showed:

Mel Arnold – CON – 16,131

Cindy Derkaz – LIB – 7,704

Harwinder Sandhu – NDP – 5,727

Marc Reinarz – GRN – 3,796

Kyle Delfing – PPC – 1,030

8:20 p.m.

The Canadian Press is projecting a Conservative win in the North Okanagan-Shuswap riding.

With just under ten-thousand votes counted, incumbent Mel Arnold was leading with 4,549 votes.

The Liberal candidate Cindy Derkaz followed with 2,284 votes after 55 of 286 polls had been counted.

The NDP’s Harwinder Sandhu was in third place with 1,611 votes followed by the Green Party’s Marc Reinarz with 1,095 and the People’s Party of Canada candidate Kyle Delfing with 285 votes.

7:57 p.m.

As expected, Conservative candidate Mel Arnold is leading the pack in the federal riding of North Okanagan-Shuswap.

With ten of 286 polls counted, Arnold is out in front with 660 votes.

He is followed by Liberal candidate Cindy Derkaz who has picked up 361 votes.

In third place is the NDP’s Harwinder Sandhu with 214 votes.

The Green Party’s Marc Reinarz has 162 votes and the People’s Party of Canada’s candidate Kyle Delfing has just 29.

So far, 1,426 ballots have been counted.

—

The polls have now closed for Canada’s 43rd general election.

North Okanagan-Shuswap Returning officer Sharon Morrison describes the turnout in the riding today as “steady.”

She told us around 5:30 p.m. there wasn’t any major lineups or issues at any of the 240 ordinary polling stations and nine mobile polls.

“We’ve actually had some good compliments from people coming out of the larger polling places, and they complimented people on how organized they were, so that’s always good to hear.”

Morrison said the voter flow today was helped by the fact that 20 per cent of registered voters cast ballots in the advance polls, which works out to over 20,000 people in the North Okanagan Shuswap.

There are five local candidates: including one term incumbent Mel Arnold of the Conservatives, Kyle Delfing of the People’s Party, Cindy Derkaz of the Liberals, Marc Reinarz of the Green Party and Harwinder Sandhu of the NDP.

It was a rather uneventful campaign in the riding as none of the national leaders visited over the 40 day campaign, which is usually an indication that it’s not expected to be a close race.

This riding has elected right of centre candidates for the last 25 years, spanning eight elections, going back to Darrel Stinson of the Reform Party in 1993, with Stinson later winning three more terms for the Alliance and Conservative parties.

Colin Mayes then won three terms for the Conservatives, before current MP Mel Arnold continued the Tories win streak in 2015.

Lyle MacWilliam of the left of centre NDP was the MP for the riding from 1988 to 1993.

Derkaz is making her second attempt to become the riding’s MP after finishing second to Arnold in 2015 with 29 per cent of the vote, compared to 39 per cent for Arnold.

The NDP with Jacqui Gingras as their candidate, was third in 2015 with 25 percent, and the Green Party under Chris George had five per cent.