(Update at 12:26 a.m.)
It’s a second term as Delta’s MP for Liberal Carla Qualtrough.
With all 189 polls in Delta reporting in, Qualtrough ended the night in the lead with 21,969 votes, well ahead of Conservative Tanya Corbet, who had 17,638. NDP candidate Randy Anderson-Fennell sat third with 8,654 votes, followed by the Green Party’s Craig DeCraene (3,310), People’s Party of Canada’s Angelina Ireland (937), and independent candidates Amarit Bains and Tony Bennett (397 and 383, respectively).
Qualtrough was one of 157 Liberal candidates elected across Canada on Monday night, enough to secure the party a minority government but 13 short of the 170 seats needed for a majority in the 338-seat House of Commons.
Addressing a few dozen people at her North Delta campaign office Monday night, a jubilant Qualtrough was initially at a loss for words.
“I actually don’t know what to say Delta,” Qualtrough said to start her acceptance speech. “I want to start though by thanking all the other candidates who put their names forward. It isn’t an easy thing to do, but it’s really important and it’s what makes our democracy strong.
“And we want to pause and pay tribute to my fellow Liberal candidates who werern’t re-elected. We lost some good people tonight, and we are going to do them proud by continuing to move this country forward in a way that includes everyone.”
Qualtrough thanked her family, staff and volunteers for all their hard work during the campaign and for always believing in her and Liberal leader Justin Trudeau.
“I have been a part of a lot of teams, and you know my background in sport, and I can tell you this is one of the best teams — probably the best team — I have ever been a part of. Every single one of you made this happen,” the former Paralympian told the crowd. “Every athlete that has stood on a podium knows that you don’t get there alone, and behind every successful win is a massive army of people, of coaches, of volunteers, of supporters, and we had that in spades this time in Delta.”
Qualtrough spoke about the negative tone this election took at times with misinformation and mud-slinging, saying her party choosing “time and time again to take the high road” payed off in the end.
“Because you know what Delta wants? They want someone who believes that we can make this world a better place. They don’t want someone who tears people down or cuts services; they want a progressive government that invests in people and invests in communities, and you all know that for the next four years I’m going to make darn sure that we invest in Delta.”
After her speech, Qualtrough told the North Delta Reporter she was excited and proud to get to serve as Delta’s member of Parliament for another four years.
“I’m excited that, doing it for a second time, how much better we’re going to be able to do it. You know, we’ve learned so much and we’re not new to this anymore and we’ve got systems and a great team in place and we can just hit the ground running,” she said.
“I look forward to picking up where we left off. Like, we don’t have to build anything and we’ve got our team in place, we’ve got our systems in place, and we’ve got some really neat ideas about how we can even do things better now that we’ve done this before.”
Qualtrough said she isn’t sure exactly how a minority government will work, but she looks forward to being part of the team that figures it out.
“I think Canada has definitely said we want a progressive government moving forward and we’re going to have to work together to figure out what that looks like. I mean, that’s the message I got tonight,” she said.
“I look forward to figuring out the minority government thing, what that means for Delta, what that means for Canada, what that means for Carla. But I think it’ll be good.”
— with files from Ashley Wadhwani
(Update at 10:20 p.m.)
It’s a second term as Delta’s MP for Liberal Carla Qualtrough.
With only nine of the 189 polls in Delta left to report in, Qualtrough is firmly in the lead with 20,664 votes, defeating Conservative Tanya Corbet’s tally of 16,558. NDP candidate Randy Anderson-Fennell sits third with 8,251 votes, followed by the Green Party’s Craig DeCraene (3,128 votes), People’s Party of Canada’s Angelina Ireland (866 votes), and independent candidates Amarit Bains and Tony Bennett (389 and 264 votes, respectively).
(Update at 8:47 p.m.)
The Canadian Press is calling the election in Delta for Liberal candidate Carla Qualtrough.
With 60 of 189 polls in Delta reporting in so far, Qualtrough remains in the lead with 6,613 votes, followed by Conservative Tanya Corbet with 5,583. NDP candidate Randy Anderson-Fennell sits third with 2,492 votes, followed by the Green Party’s Craig DeCraene (1,094), People’s Party of Canada’s Angelina Ireland (285 votes), and independent candidates Tony Bennett and Amarit Bains (108 and 97 votes, respectively).
(Update at 8:42 p.m.)
With 50 of 189 polls in Delta have reported in so far, and Liberal candidate Carla Qualtrough remains in the lead with 5,133 votes, followed by Conservative Tanya Corbet with 4,193. NDP candidate Randy Anderson-Fennell sits third with 1,953 votes, followed by the Green Party’s Craig DeCraene (823), People’s Party of Canada’s Angelina Ireland (210 votes), and independent candidates Tony Bennett and Amarit Bains (82 and 75 votes, respectively).
(Update at 8:24 p.m.)
Federal election results in Delta are beginning to trickle in.
With 10 of 189 polls reporting in, Liberal candidate Carla Qualtrough is in the lead with 819 votes, followed by Conservative Tanya Corbet with 584. NDP candidate Randy Anderson-Fennell sits third with 322 votes, followed by the Green Party’s Craig DeCraene (145), People’s Party of Canada’s Angelina Ireland (32 votes), and independent candidates Amarit Bains and Tony Bennett (14 and 10 votes, respectively).
About three-quarters of the riding’s population — 76,871 out of 103,064 — registered to vote in the federal election, and it remains to be seen how many cast their ballot this time around.
Voter turnout in Delta in 2015 was just over 74 per cent (55,889 of the 75,044 registered voters), as Liberal candidate Carla Qualtrough defeated incumbent Conservative Kerry-Lynne Findlay. Qualtrough captured 49.1 per cent of the vote to Findlay’s 32.8 per cent. The NDP’s Jeremy Leveque came in third with 14.9 per cent of the vote, while the Green Party’s Anthony Edward Devellano came in fourth with 3.2 per cent.
Stay tuned for further updates as more polling stations report in.
For up-to-date results from across Canada, click here.
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