A Liberal Win for Kelowna Lake Country

After nearly a decade of Conservative leadership, the Kelowna-Lake Country electoral riding is swapping their blue stripes for red.

It was a tight race between the Conservatives and the Liberals, but as the last remaining votes trickled in, it became apparent that incumbent MP Ron Cannan was defeated by Liberal leader Stephen Fuhr.

“This was a massive undertaking in this riding,” said Incoming Elected Liberal Member of Parliament for Kelowna-Lake Country riding, Stephen Fuhr. “It took everybody to come together to make this happen.”

“I’m still in shock. I mean, this has been a Conservative riding forever,” continued Fuhr. “It was certainly the best plan. If I just look at the problems we have, environmentally, economically, socially, how we act on the world stage, I think our party platform was the best to solve those problems. The Party deserved to win based on their platform.”

Moving forward with a new federal government, Fuhr is looking to prioritize our infrastructure needs.

“We have some infrastructure requirements in the City, so I’m looking forward to getting to work and marrying the needs of the City, and working with the City, to get the resources that the federal government has promised in their campaign.”

Excited and ready to get started, Fuhr suggested that times are a changin’ here in Kelowna, and that the country is moving towards a new mindset.

“The older generation here is concerned about leaving their kids debt, they’re concerned about leaving kids a broken environment, they’re concerned about a whole bunch of things that overrides their comfortable ways of perceiving how we should be say socially,” said Fuhr.

“It’s a big win because of this riding’s history and an excellent example of what can be accomplished when people work together.”

According to Elections Canada, the final voting results are as follows:

Norah Mary Bowman with NDP: 9,044 votes/14.1 per cent.
Ron Cannan with Conservative: 25,512 votes/39.8 per cent.
Stephen Fuhr with Liberal: 29,614 votes/46.1 per cent.

To check out the national results, click on the following links:

Outgoing Prime Minister Stephen Harper's address to the nation;

Incoming Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's address;

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair's speech.