Monday September 20, 2021 | DUNCAN, BC
by Mary P Brooke, Editor | Island Social Trends
Alistair MacGregor has been declared the winner in Cowichan-Malahat-Langford, serving for a 3rd term.
Before the federal election results in BC started rolling in, Cowichan-Malahat-Langford incumbent NDP candidate Alistair MacGregor spent this election day resting up while also phoning volunteers and donors to thank them for their support.
The polls just closed at 7 pm, but it could be a few more days until full election results are known across the country. That’s due largely to the large mail-in ballot volume; those ballots (over 1 million) are counted by hand.
Through the campaign MacGregor and his team heard about affordability issues (housing in particular), the climate crisis (people are very much aware that the heat this summer was “a sign of things to come”), and the challenges around supporting the health-care system (and “expanding in other areas”).
“Just how do we get out of the pandemic?”. That’s the biggest challenge that the new government will need to deal with. “The fourth wave of COVID has really set us back,” MacGregor told Island Social Trends this evening. He mentions small business in particular as having a significant challenge in getting through this coming winter.
One of the most immediate needs to sort out in the House of Commons is the impact of Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) payments having been clawed back from seniors who took CERB payments in 2020. If that is not dealt with promptly, many seniors will be struggling in real and significant ways to make ends meet — possibly for up to a year if the tax-year cycle is one of the benchmarks for dealing with any changes.
For MacGregor this was his third election campaign. He was first elected in Cowichan-Malahat-Langford in 2015 and again in 2019.
Election results may not be known in full across the country tonight, due to the large volume of mail-in ballots that won’t be counted until starting tomorrow.
COVID protocols have been maintained at voting stations by Elections Canada. COVID-related safety was a top priority on MacGregor’s campaign, including choosing to not campaign inside apartment or condo buildings, as a courtesy to residents and the safety of campaign volunteers.
