Riding results: NDP Leader Adrian Dix loses B.C. election, wins Vancouver-Kingsway riding (with video)

Lori Culbert, Vancouver Sun 



VANCOUVER — As die-hard party supporters chanted “NDP, NDP, NDP!” a smiling Adrian Dix admitted late Tuesday night that his party lost an election all polls had indicated it would win.

Voters elected a Liberal government, despite polls suggesting the NDP had a 20-point lead going into the campaign.

“Never a dull moment in B.C. politics,” Dix told party stalwarts gathered at the Vancouver Convention Centre late Tuesday night. “I am very proud of the campaign NDP candidates and volunteers ran across British Columbia.”

The B.C. Liberals were elected in 50 seats, a gain of five seats over what they had going into the election.

The New Democrats took just 33 seats, meaning the party lost three seats in the house.

The Green party won its first ever seat on Tuesday, and independent Vicki Huntingdon held her riding of Delta South.

Independents Bob Simpson and John van Dongen lost their seats.

The NDP had hoped to form government a dozen years after B.C. residents turfed the party from power and nearly wiped it off the political map, sending just two NDP MLAs to the legislature.

“Elections belong to the voters, and the voters have decided, and it is our responsibility, our duty, to accept that decision,” said Dix, who was hoping to form just the fourth NDP government in B.C.’s history.

He spoke about the NDP forming the government again in the future if party members continued to work toward change, and seemed to suggest he would stick around as leader.

“I don’t know about you, but I haven’t given up trying,” he told supporters, who had earlier looked down-trodden but then cheered to support their leader.

In final voting numbers, the Liberals took 44.4 per cent of the popular vote, while the NDP took just 39.5 per cent and the Greens had 8 per cent and the Conservatives 4.8 per cent.

The NDP not only lost seats, but also saw its share of the popular vote shrink by about three percentage points from 2009.

Earlier in the evening, at the NDP party, veteran MLA Jenny Kwan, who was declared a winner in her Vancouver-Mount Pleasant seat, took to the stage to try to rally the anxious crowd, who appeared dumbstruck by the election results.

“The night is still young. … The orange wave, don’t worry, is coming,” Kwan promised. But it was not a promise she could keep.

As the night wore on, shell-shocked NDP supporters hugged each other, quietly sipped their drinks and stared with disbelief at the TV screens as pundits predicted a Liberal majority.



