Lexi Bainas and Kevin Laird
Black Press
Riding the wave of continued support for the New Democratic Party in the Cowichan Valley, Alistair MacGregor captured the new riding of Cowichan-Malahat-Langford in MondayB次元官网网址檚 federal election.
MacGregor, who worked for retired NDP MP Jean Crowder for years, won the riding by a landslide of more than several thousand votes ahead of Conservative candidate Martin Barker and Liberal Luke Krayenhoff.
B次元官网网址淭he people of Cowichan-Malahat-Langford have sent a clear message tonight.B次元官网网址 MacGregor said. B次元官网网址淵ou voted for change. Rejecting the politics of fear and division, you voted for a better and more inlusive Canada. And that was a good thing.B次元官网网址
He assured everyone, even those who supported other candidates, that he was B次元官网网址済oing to fight for those values every single day.B次元官网网址 He thanked his team, B次元官网网址渆specially for keeping going when we were so tired after an 11-week campaign.B次元官网网址
The other West Shore riding saw a tight race as the votes began being counted, but in the end, New Democrat incumbent Randall Garrison was re-elected to the realigned riding of Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke on Monday night.
Garrison was in a battle early on with unheralded Liberal David Merner, but managed to pull away as the poll numbers came in.
He was declared elected by the time 50 of 229 polls were counted, having built a lead of more than 700 votes. Garrison called his victory B次元官网网址渂ittersweet, but added B次元官网网址淚B次元官网网址檓 looking forward to working hard over the next four years and IB次元官网网址檓 going to keep the LiberalsB次元官网网址 feet to the fire.B次元官网网址 Among other things, he vowed to ensure the Liberals keep their promise to review the Bill C-51 anti-terror bill.
Asked how he would do that as a member of the third party in Parliament, he said, B次元官网网址淣ew Democrats have always had a strong voice and being the third party wonB次元官网网址檛 change that.B次元官网网址