Conservative Jeff Kibble has won the Cowichan-Malahat-Langford riding over longtime NDP incumbent Alistair MacGregor, preliminary results show.
With 298 of 300 polls reporting, Kibble has 27,912 votes (37.3%), while MacGregor sits at 24,462 (32.7%). Liberal Blair Herbert has 21,041 votes and the Green Party's Kathleen Code has 1,477. Voter turnout sat at 71.47 per cent with two polls remaining to be counted.
"I am humbled by the support we've seen across the riding, and I hear, I see their pain and the suffering and the challenges that they face and and my commitment is to represent them to the best of our ability here in the riding," he said.
"My focus has always been rebuilding our economy, and the positive changes that we can do from Ottawa that will help our health care system, help us fight crime, help those suffering with addictions, and help those struggling to feed their families, and that's what's really important to me.
"Our political landscape has changed significantly and we're now facing a minority government, so that will be interesting times and it's early days right now to see how that will all play out, but that's my commitment to our riding and and all of our amazing constituents."
It was a night of mixed emotions for Kibble, whose strong local showing was tempered by watching Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre deliver his concession speech.
"I was surprised. He's a great speaker and his speech was very good, heartfelt, and he's still delivering the same message about Conservatives fighting for Canadians, so I really respected that," he said. "I think it was a bit of a surprise, I think to a lot of people in the room, including myself, but we'll have to see in the next few days how things play out. Still lots of pieces in the puzzle."
MacGregor was in North Cowichan at a watch party with a few dozen supporters watching the numbers roll in. The mood became sombre as the night wore on.
鈥淚鈥檝e never failed to be absolutely floored and humbled by the sheer number of amazing people that come out and work every single time and this is no different,鈥� MacGregor said.
鈥淏eing your Member of Parliament for the last nine and a half years, that was an honour that I will always treasure. I鈥檝e called this place my home for the last 35 years. To represent the place and the people that I grew up in and surrounded myself around, it was amazing to be out there. We left everything out there, we truly did. No regrets, we did everything that we could, and I did everything that I could, so I don't want anyone to hold that on them."
Dropping to third early in the race, Herbert held an intimate watch party in Duncan.
"It was a good campaign. It was a short campaign, but a long campaign because we were running full out for five or six weeks," Herbert said. "I would recommend this to anybody to do this, really. This is the third time I've run and it was a very positive experience, I find. When you're going around talking to people at the doors and the feedback that we're getting from the people at the doors is really actually very uplifting. So I'm glad I've done it."
Falling to fourth of four candidates, it was evident early that the green candidate, Kathleen Code, was not in the race for MP, despite having many supporters.
"I'm not surprised at all," she admitted on election night. "I have to say I can't blame them. There was such consternation through voters who were afraid of a Conservative win in this particular riding, and a good many voters who would vote Green said they had to vote NDP to make sure the Conservative fellow did not win."
While she said she would have loved to have had a bigger vote share, she knows the support is out there.
"I've felt that everywhere I've gone and I've felt that online," she added. "We will continue to work through our riding association and we'll continue to keep working for the citizens who hold dear the values of social and environmental justice."
National leader Elizabeth May was the only Green candidate to win a seat but Code thinks she'll still have an impact.
"I'm disappointed that there aren't more Greens but Elizabeth May is such an incredible leader and we certainly need her leadership in the years to come. She's pretty good at increasing her sphere of influence as part of government, and we have a tremendous platform, and a tremendous budget and I'm sure through her we'll make great contributions in government."
With a population of about 124,247, the riding is made up of voters in Langford, Highlands, Port Renfrew, Duncan and the Cowichan Valley. The seat had been held by MacGregor since 2015.
鈥擶ith files from Chadd Cawson, Morgan Brayton, Ben Fenlon, Dan Ebenal and Andrea Rondeau