Sunday October 27, 2024 | COLWOOD, BC
Political analysis by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
While it looked like BC Conservative candidate John Wilson might take Esquimalt-Colwood by storm on election night October 19, the BC NDP have held onto the riding.
The riding used to include rural Metchosin (previously held by Mitzi Dean as the MLA for Esquimalt-Metchosin), but for the 2024 provincial election had new boundaries almost entirely in urban areas and is now called Esquimalt-Colwood (including Esquimalt, Colwood, View Royal and Vic West).
After former cabinet minister Mitzi Dean chose not to seek re-election (announced August 31), the BC NDP had a short time-frame to find a new candidate.
Esquimalt municipal councillor and Island Health employee Darlene Rotchford was asked by the BC NDP and she quickly said yes. She was acclaimed on September 7 and handily won the riding on October 19.
Rotchford was already known in Esquimalt as an elected municipal councillor and would have been strongly supported by the robust and well-organized BC NDP ground game. She got Eby’s stamp of approval early in her campaign when he appeared with her at a community health-care discussion on September 10.
Rotchford will likely need to leave her elected municipal position behind (based on an interview with Island Social Trends in September), and possibly also step away from her work in mental health and addictions with Island Health. Together with her husband who is in the military, she is the mother of a young new baby.
Over 50% of the vote:
On election night October 19 Rotchford claimed the win in Esquimalt-Colwood.
As of the October 27 recount she has 51.14% of the voter turnout.
The most recent ballot count update from Elections BC (1 pm on Sunday October 27, 2024) sets the Esquimalt-Colwood electoral area outcome as:
- BC NDP – Darlene Rotchford – 14,504 votes (51.14%)
- BC Conservative – John Wilson – 8,348 votes (29.43%)
- BC Green – Camille Currie – 5,509 votes (19.42%)
Final BC Election results will be confirmed on Monday October 28, but given the wide vote margin, Esquimalt-Colwood is not expected to have a different outcome.
Wilson & Currie:
John Wilson came into the race late on September 10, with the confidence that his broad and long-standing connections in the business and sporting communities would carry him to the BC Election 2024 finish line.
Achieving nearly 30 percent of the vote was no small feat by BC Conservatives being brand new to politics. But his bailiwick is business, and it was a steep learning curve to enter provincial politics on such short notice, as he outlined in his interview with Island Social Trends in early October.
Building on her profile as an advocate for health-care system improvements and her 2023 by-election run for the BC Greens in Langford-Juan de Fuca, BC Green candidate Camille Currie worked steadily in the community all year ahead of the Esquimalt-Colwood campaign in a way that she might have been the winner — especially after Dean dropped out and the BC Conservatives had no candidate.
But when Wilson came into the race for the BC Conservatives it must have been game-on for the BC NDP to not lose their stronghold in the west shore/Esquimalt/View Royal areas that Dean had worked so hard to build.
Complex riding:
The Esquimalt-Colwood riding is now almost entirely urban and in many ways a crucible for key BC NDP policies around affordable housing, health-care accessibility, the drug overdose crisis, safety on downtown streets, and the cost of living strain on families and low-income households.
The riding has a component of small business, and a strong presence for the hospitality and tourism sectors.
Housing growth is substantial in the Colwood area of the riding, but where there could be more opportunities for affordable housing.
Esquimalt-Colwood is also home to the Esquimalt DND military base and also the central wastewater treatment facility for the Greater Victoria region is in Esquimalt. A new Island Health long-term care facility is set to open in Colwood in 2027, as is the new BC Museum collections building.
It’s a coastal riding, with issues around waterfront property and coastline erosion.
The riding bridges two school districts: SD61 – Greater Victoria and SD62 Sooke (schools in Colwood, Langford and Sooke).
===== RELATED:
- Grinding through the process for final BC Election 2024 results (October 27, 2024)
- John Wilson brings business experience & community connection to Esquimalt-Colwood campaign (October 2, 2024)
- “Okay, I’m in!” says Darlene Rotchford for BC NDP in Esquimalt-Colwood (September 24, 2024)
- Camille Currie on why she’d be the right MLA for Esquimalt-Colwood (September 21, 2024)
- John Wilson could achieve an upset in Esquimalt-Colwood (September 12, 2024)
- BC NDP chooses Darlene Rotchford as candidate for Esquimalt-Colwood (September 7, 2024)
- Mitzi Dean pulls out of election 2024 (August 31, 2024)
- BC election ‘already in the history books’, says Rustad (June 19, 2024)
- NEWS SECTIONS: POLITICS | BC ELECTION 2024