It's looking like Delta South’s Ian Paton has once again been re-elected in Delta South.
According to Elections BC, with 14 of 15 Final Voting Day ballot boxes counted and three of four advanced voting ballot boxes counted, while the out of district count is still in progress, the election night tally has Conservative candidate Paton at 13,646 votes (55.04 per cent).
Paton’s only challenger, the NDP’s Jason McCormick, got 11,146 votes (44.96 per cent).
Paton was first elected in 2017, regaining the seat for the Liberals after independent Vicki Huntington decided to step down after two terms.
The Liberals held the riding for 18 years, from the time it was created in 1991 until 2009, before Huntington’s two victories.
After Paton was re-elected for the Liberals in 2020, when he got 52.42 per cent of the vote, the party went on to change its name to BC United.
He was expecting to run for BC United in this year’s race but ended up joining the BC Conservatives after BC United bowed out.
"It's been different than what we experienced when we were door knocking. But you know, that's democracy. I'm very happy to get 55 per cent, a little higher than that even. I am surprised that the NDP did as well as they did in our riding," Paton told the Optimist.
While the vote province-wide has been very tight, in Delta North, NDP incumbent Ravi Kahlon finished well ahead.
According to Elections BC, with all seven advance voting ballot boxes counted and 11 of 12 Final Voting Day ballot boxes counted, Kahlon has 10,643 votes (52.56 per cent).
Challenger Raj Veauli with the Conservatives has 40.41 per cent, while Nick Dickinson-Wilde for the Green Party got just over six per cent and Manqoosh Khan with the Freedom Party of BC only garnered less than one per cent.
With files by Optimist reporter Phil Melnychuk
