Kootenay-Columbia is back to being a blue riding as Rob Morrison has won for the Conservatives.
As of 12:15 am on Tuesday, Morrison had 45.1 % of the total votes in the riding, collecting 29,893 ballots. Wayne Stetski, incumbent NDP had 22,707 votes or 34.2 %.
Here’s the unofficial results with all 268 polls reporting:
- Rob Morrison – Conservative – 29,893 (45.1%)
- Wayne Stetski – New Democrat – 22,707 (34.2%)
- Robin Goldsbury – Liberal – 6,033 (9.1%)
- Abra Brynne – Green – 5,998 (9.0%)
- Rick Stewart – People’s Party – 1,360 (2.0%)
- Trev Miller – Animal Protection Party – 336 (0.5%)
Giving his victory speech at the Fire Hall in Cranbrook, in a room full of his supporters, Morrison was grateful for the victory.
“It’s almost overwhelming actually,” Morrison told MyEastKootenayNow.com. “We’ve worked for two and a half years, I’ve been out for the last full year in all different parts of the riding talking to people, listening what the issues, trying to build up support for the Conservative Party and to have it all over now after all of that work is unbelievable.”
Wayne Stetski, incumbent NDP candidate ceded the riding to Morrison, as Kootenay-Columbia returns to its Conservative roots in 2019.
“I start by congratulating Mr. Morrison. The riding had been Conservative for 21 years until 2015, so we’ve had four years of I think a different approach,” Stetski told MyEastKootenayNow.com. “We worked really hard, we helped hundreds of people across the riding. One of the things I really hope is that the people of Kootenay-Columbia continue to get the high-quality level of service that they’ve had for the last four years.”
Official results are expected in the coming days but one thing is for certain, Rob Morrison will represent Kootenay-Columbia as a Conservative MP in a Federal Liberal Minority Government, as they have 156 seats to the Conservatives 122 as of 12:15 am on Tuesday.
