Surrey South voters have chosen Elenore Sturko as their new representative in Victoria.
With 100 per cent of polls reporting, preliminary results of Saturday’s (Sept. 10) byelection place BC Liberal candidate Sturko as the winner, with 5,568 votes or nearly 52 per cent of the 10,742 ballots cast, over BC NDP candidate Pauline Greaves, her closest competitor, at 30 per cent (3,221 votes).
Results of the final count will be confirmed on Wednesday, Sept. 14.
Sturko, a sergeant with the RCMP, chose to run for office on an unpaid leave from the force. Greaves is a professor of business at Langara School of Management.
Also in the running for the position of MLA, left vacant by the resignation of BC Liberal Stephanie Cadieux in April, were transportation/construction business-owner Harman Bhanghu (Conservative Party of BC) who came third with 1,364 votes, SFU student and climate activist Simran Sarai (Green Party of BC), who placed fourth with 368 votes, and film actor and production worker Jason Bax (Libertarian Party of BC) who placed fifth with 221 votes.
During the campaign Sturko underlined what she claimed to have been broken promises by the NDP, including providing viable solutions to affordability of housing and the rising cost of living, the shortage of doctors and medical staff, the continuing opioid crisis and increases in violent crime associated with mental health and poverty issues.
Greaves had emphasized the importance of continuing initiatives taken by the NDP that would directly affect the lives of Surrey South residents, including completing a new hospital promised for Cloverdale and a replacement for the George Massey tunnel.
More to come…
