Valley remains blue.....mostly

It was kind of a weird feeling on election night….we already knew that the Liberals were going to form government in Canada for the first time in 10 years.  But what we didn’t know was if the Fraser Valley would stay Conservative, a colour that has painted the region for as long as we can remember.  For the most part, that stayed true….but it was by no means a cake walk this time around.  Chilliwack-Hope incumbent Mark Strahl, who took 57% of the votes back in 2011, managed to reclaim his seat, but it was no landslide this time.  He defeated Liberal Louis De Jaeger by around 4,000 votes.  Strahl says he had a feeling this was going to be close.

“Their (Liberals) poll numbers skyrocketed in the last week and that had an effect here too.  We had stronger numbers than them in the end, but I don’t think this has anything to do with a changing demographic.  I think it’s more about a collapse of the NDP vote and a Liberal wave.  A change election always brings those factors against the incumbent government.”

He says he’s honored to be elected again and looks forward to being part of a strong Conservative opposition.  Meantime, it wasn’t as close of a race in Abbotsford, where incumbent Ed Fast got his seat back with 48% of the votes.

“It’s a bittersweet moment for us.  Obviously Abbotsford will continue to have a Conservative MP, and I’m very grateful to the people of Abbotsford, but across Canada people voted for change, and of course we accept that judgement.”

He admits it’s going be a role change for him…he is the current International Trade Minister.  But he says this election was a glowing example of democracy at work.

There was one change in the valley however.

It was the last undecided riding in the entire country on election night, but in the early morning hours on Tuesday, Liberal Jati Sidhu was finally declared the winner in the new Mission Matsqui Fraser Canyon riding, edging Conservative Brad Vis by just over 1,000 votes.  Sidhu has a background in agriculture and has also served on the Abbotsford Police Board and the UFV Board. He’s still trying to soak everything in, but when he finally does get to Ottawa, he tells us about the issue he’d like to look at first.

“The first one is the supply management…it’s very close to my heart.  I want to see what’s in that deal for my farmers.  I’m not against free trade, but I want stakeholders sitting on the table and to see what’s in it for them.”

He says another priority will be to figure out a plan on how best to communicate with his constituents, considering the sheer size of the riding…it spans over 21,000 sq kms.  Sidhu says he might look at setting up a satellite office…he wants to make sure he represents all of his constituents.

In the end, the result in this election came down to a host of factors….UFV Political Expert Hamish Telford says voters wanted change, they were tired of the Harper Government, but Justin Trudeau gave them something to cheer for.  He says he was still surprised though to see how big of an effect the Liberal wave had on the valley.

“As best I can tell, the Liberal candidate in Abbotsford didn’t even mount much of a campaign, yet still got 15,000 votes….that’s a real kind of wave phenomenon.  The candidate in Chilliwack (De Jaeger) did mount a serious campaign and he came close.  I think it speaks partly to the demographic changes as well.”

Voter turnout in the valley was up significantly this year as well, with over 70% of voters casting ballots in all 3 ridings.