PG Still Blue
By Ben Meisner
Prince George's three ridings returned a full slate of Liberals last night with Pat Bell leading the pack. In Prince George North, Bell racked up 7419 votes to Deborah Poff's 5369, while Denis Gendron of the Greens trailed with 1,129. Bell led the pack from the opening of the count.
In Prince George- Omineca, newcomer, John Rustad picked up 51.66 % of the popular vote with 8129 votes to capture the riding. Chuck Fraser of the NDP was well back with 5847 or 37.16% of the vote. The Greens, under Andrej J.Dewolf, actually surprised many in the traditionally right wing riding when he took 1303 of the vote, for an 8.28% share.
Prince George- Mount Robson's Shirely Bond , the Liberal , had been called as the constituency to watch . She was elected in the riding with 5,640 votes or 41.36% of the popular vote,. Independant, Paul Nettleton, who had switched from his old riding of Omineca went down for the count early receiving only 2085 votes or 15.29% of the vote. The NDP's Wayne Mills received 4701 or 34.47% of the vote, while the Greens under Don Roberts, tallied 989 votes .
The referendum on the BC-STV went down to defeat. The referendum failed to pass in the Prince George ridings, which followed the trend across the province.
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I'm disappointed.
Firstly, it was John Rustad that led the pack of three elected Liberals for Prince George ridings, getting more votes in total, and having a higher margin of victory over the only real competition, the NDP candidate.
Secondly, Mr. Meisner's take on STV is completely wrong. The CBC reports early returns of 57% for the yes side across the province. Without the final tally being available until May 30, we can still presume the results imply that both the 60% yes overall threshold and the simple majority in 60 ridings threshold will be close, but a little short.
Meisner's claim that the trend across the province was one of defeat is clearly wrong. The trend is one of winning majority support, but not by enough to meet both aspects of the high standard.
If the BC-STV referendum was a simple majority (an even harder test than our first past the post system of electing MLAs) we would have BC-STV.
A full analysis would include the fact that despite the yes side losing, the yes side has won a great deal. Premier Gordon Campbell, according to the Vancouver Sun, concedes that "STV has struck a chord with voters" and "He says citizens have been fairly clear and there is a fairly strong mandate for reform to take place." For him, the issue is not dead; reform may very well happen in the near future.
Give us the full story, Ben.