For the first time in five general elections, an incumbent candidate has taken the riding of Vancouver-Fairview.
Not once since 2001 has the riding been successfully defended until now as the NDP’s George Heyman won the urban seat for a second term with more than half the vote.
“I have been working for people for the past four years,” he said well before the government was declared.
With the balance of power held by the Greens, and the NDP and Liberals still deadlocked with an equal share of seats, Heyman said, “This is about as close as you can get.”
“It will be very, very interesting,” he said about the government’s likely minority make-up.
Once nearly all polls were counted by 10 p.m., the former leader of the provincial government employees union had 54 per cent of ballots and had significantly improved on his margins from the 2013 election when he unseated the incumbent to win by roughly 1,400 votes.
Heyman garnered over 4,000 votes more than first-time Liberal candidate Gabe Garfinkel who won 33 per cent of the riding. The Green’s Louise Boutin won 13 per cent.
The riding is home to Vancouver city hall and has been the seat of high-profile political candidates, including Mayor Gregor Robertson who won the seat for the NDP in 2005. The NDP won the seat ina by-election after he stepped down to run for municipal office with Vision, but then lost the seat in the 2009 general election to Liberal Margaret MacDiarmid. Four years later, she lost to Heyman, who won the NDP nomination over Vision city councillor Geoff Meggs.
Garfinkel, an entrepreneur and former aid to Liberal leader Christy Clark, won the Liberal nomination in the riding over NPA councillor Elizabeth Ball.
