
Photo: Melissa Ligertwood
It was anything but close.
The Schubert Centre in Vernon was hopping on Tuesday night following the results of the BC provincial election.
A large crowd of BC Liberal supporters gathered around the television news feed, and roared in jubilation as win after win was announced for the BC Liberal party across the province.
Eric Foster will get another four years as the MLA for Vernon-Monashee. And, another majority government for the BC Liberals.
"I feel great obviously. We did real well in the riding and we did tremendous across the province," said Foster.
Foster says he's not surprised by his party's success. He said, "We've done a good job. We've managed the economy well, and ran our campaign on the economy and I think people in British Columbia felt that we were the best ones to manage that economy."
In an election that everybody thought was going to be close, Foster ended up with more than 47 per cent of the vote, while the BC NDP's Mark Olsen received only 33 per cent.
Olsen was a gracious silver medalist, taking time to acknowledge and thank his team.
"They were phenomenal, they were tireless, they were dedicated and I tell ya, I am a winner just for knowing them. They were fantastic," said Olsen.
Olsen admitted, he was surprised by the outcome. He said, "We worked hard to identify the vote and get the vote out but they were more successful. My hat's off to Eric (Foster) and his team."
The BC Conservative candidate, Scott Anderson, came in third with 11 per cent while Independent candidate Korry Zepik came away with less than one percent of the vote.
Foster's first order of business now that the election is over? He says he's going to mow his lawn.
Probably not exactly what voters want to hear, but reasonable and understandable given the long hours and hard work that have gone into the last three weeks.
Welcome to another four years with the BC Liberals.