BC Conservatives hit expectations

For B.C. Conservative party Deputy Leader, Mark Thompson, the political glass is half full.

Thompson, who ran unsuccessfully in the Kelowna-Mission riding, says he is pleased with his showing and that of his party.

The B.C. Conservatives ran candidates in 24 ridings, mostly in the interior of the province, were making a concerted run for the first time in many years.

"We're extremely pleased having achieved greater than 10% of the vote. We set a target ourselves of achieving 10% and we're up at about 12%," says Thompson.

"This is a wonderful launching pad for us to be able to move forward as a party that will be seen as credible here in Kelowna. You will see we actually beat the Green Party and one of the things we wanted to make sure of is in the next election we would be seen as a major party."

Thompson says that goal was achieved.

The former Saskatoon City Councillor finished third in Kelowna-Mission behind Liberal Steve Thomson and Tisha Kalmanovitch of the NDP.

Thompson says the only negative of the evening was not seeing a party member elected.

The party held out hopes that Joe Cardoso in Boundary-Similkameen or party leader Wilf Hanni in Kootenay East could have provided an upset.

That did not happen.

"It is disappointing, but we were running against very difficult odds. The money being spent by the NDP and the Liberal parties were so phenomenal compared to funds available to us that we knew it would be extremely difficult."

Cardoso did finish a strong third with about 20% of the votes going his way.

Thompson says the party did make so major strides and promises they will be back even stronger in 2013.

"We are going to reach out to the communities across the province and let ordinary folks participate in building policy and letting ordinary folks to tell us what they would like the province to become."