With all local ballot boxes reporting in, the B.C. Conservative Party is sitting ahead of the incumbent NDP by fewer than 250 votes.<\/p>\n
As of 11:45 p.m., Brennan Day has 13,146 votes, or 39.04 per cent of the vote. He is trailed by Ronna-Rae Leonard, with 12,913 or 38.35 per cent. Green candidate Arzeena Hamir is in third with 6,987, or 20.75 per cent, followed by Independent John Hedican with 490 votes (1.46 per cent) and Devin Howell with 137 votes (0.41 per cent).<\/p>\n
Out-of-district ballots have yet to be reported.<\/p>\n
"There's a lot of work to do," said Day at his election night gathering at Match Eatery & Public House in Courtenay. "We've talked to Elections BC and we're confident. It's so close that there's potentially a recount and all of that, but we're confident in our numbers and Elections BC was confident enough to let us know.<\/p>\n
"There's a couple of very close races and I'm hoping B.C. Conservatives can pull it off. Regardless of (that), I'm going to be a strong advocate for the Comox Valley in Victoria and make we're representing everybody."<\/p>\n
He added that he's planning to celebrate the work and the results throughout the campaign. <\/p>\n
Leonard was unavailable for comment throughout the evening. <\/p>\n
Despite a third-place finish, Green Party candidate Arzeena Hamir said she was proud of the campaign she ran.<\/p>\n
"I am so proud of the team that came together – we knocked on 17,000 doors, we made thousands of phone calls. There are hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours that went into this campaign and I couldn't be prouder of my team. It was incredible."<\/p>\n
The Comox Valley Record reached out to both Independent candidates John Hedican and Devin Howell for comment and but did not hear back by deadline.<\/p>\n
-With reporting from Marc Kitteringham and Raynee Novak<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Conservatives edge NDP by fewer than 250 votes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":122867,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-election","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n