Liberal wave sweeps the Okanagan

With about half the votes already counted, Liberal candidates have been declared winners in six of seven Okanagan ridings.

The B.C. Liberals hold a narrow lead in the other riding Boundary-Similkameen.

The Liberals, who will form the government for a third straight term, have held on to all three Central Okanagan ridings, Westside-Kelowna, Kelowna-Mission and Kelowna Lake Country.

In each of the Kelowna based ridings, Liberal candidates have garnered more than 50% of the vote, much the same as they did back in 2005.

With a large number of votes counted, Ben Stewart has nearly 53% of the vote in Westside-Kelowna, Norm Letnick has picked up 51% of the votes in Kelowna-Lake Country while Steve Thomson has nearly 51% of the votes in Kelowna-Mission.

In Penticton, Bill Barisoff has been declared re-elected for the Liberals in that riding. With nearly half the votes counted, Barisoff has nearly 42% of the votes compared to 31% for NDP Cameron Phillips.

Health Minister, George Abbott has held Shuswap with more than 47% of the vote.

In Vernon-Monashee, Eric Foster of the Liberals holds a 600 vote edge over the NDP's Mark Olsen with nearly half the votes counted. He has been declared the winner.

In Boundary-Similkameen, John Slater has a slim 200 lead with more than half the ballots counted.

At the posting of this story, STV was trailing badly.