Monday February 25, 2019 ~ BURNABY, BC.
Update at 10:13 pm – FINAL COUNT: Jagmeet Singh NDP 8,884 votes (39%); Richard T Lee LIBERAL 5,930 votes (26.0%); Jay Shin CONSERVATIVE 5,133 votes (22.5%); Laura-Lynn Thompson PEOPLE’S PARTY 2,420 votes (10.6%) | Total votes cast 22,776 of 76,204 registered electors (29.89%) not including electors who registered on election day.
~ West Shore Voice News
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has pulled off a resounding victory for his party in the federal by-election in Burnaby South this evening, February 25.
Achieving 39.0% of the votes cast (with 99% of 196 polls counted by 10 pm PST), he has won himself a seat in the House of Commons and stabilized his party heading into the October 2019 federal election cycle.
Running second in the by-election results was Liberal candidate Richard T Lee with 26.0% of the vote, followed by Conservative candidate Jay Shin in third place with 22.5% of the vote.
There were 22,711 votes cast out of 76,204 registered electors (29.48 %), which does not include electors who registered on election day.
One of the surprise results of the evening was seeing 10.6% of the voter response going to the new People’s Party of Canada; candidate Laura-Lynn Thompson grabbed much of that from would-be Conservative or Liberal voters, which helped widen the winning margin for Singh and the NDP.
Burnaby South has been a traditionally strong NDP riding. Now-mayor of Vancouver Kennedy Stewart had held the riding for the NDP until shifting to municipal politics last year.
This is a pivotal point for the NDP across Canada. From the high-point of the ‘orange wave’ under the late Jack Layton and the dry core strength of the party moving forward after that under Tom Mulcair, the party needed some fresh energy.
BC was seen by the NDP as Singh’s best shot for ground support and campaign edge and they put their formidable NDP-support ground game behind him in recent weeks and months to win.
Singh sizes up people not for who they present themselves to be, but for who they really are. That’s rare in a politician, but partially explains how he has held onto his composure during this tough fight where virtually every political pundit across the country has painted a tough race for Singh, even implying he is bound to lose.
Singh campaigned right up to Sunday evening before today’s vote.
hire exeal communities. Singh sees this sort of thing clearly.
EDITORIAL (February 24, 2019): Why Jagmeet Singh needs to win