It was both wins and losses for the Conservative Party in the Northern Capital election night.
While federally, the party won the popular vote (34.5% compared to the Liberal’s 33%), they lost convincingly to the Grits in seats (156 Liberal to 122 Conservative) and will not hold the balance of power in Canada.
Despite the national result, Conservatives in the north had no issues taking their incumbent seats back. Cariboo-Prince George candidate Todd Doherty won with 52% of the vote and Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies candidate Bob Zimmer won in a landslide with 69%.
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It is not a jubilant scene at the #Conservative party for candidate @ToddDohertyMP but the crowd is still cheering for every seat won #CanadaElection2019 #ElectionDay2019 @mypgnow pic.twitter.com/g83TsHyoHT
— Reporter Cole (@ReporterCole) October 22, 2019
In an emotional start to his acceptance speech, Doherty said, ”representing this riding has been the greatest honour I have ever had.”
He had words for Liberal leader Justin Trudeau saying to his supporters that “we are not only going to take him on, we are going to kick his ass.”
“We won’t just take him on, we will kick his ass,” says Todd Doherty #CanadaElection2019 #CanadianElection #ElectionDay2019 pic.twitter.com/hjL8WXRB1p
— Reporter Cole (@ReporterCole) October 22, 2019
Doherty added that the six weeks spent in the campaign were some of the worst he’s ever seen.
“People on social media are ugly, it’s been ugly for our family. The stuff that my wife and my kids, my daughters predominantly, have had to endure is uncalled for. Furthermore, I don’t think that any candidate should be attacked for anything, I think we put our names forward, our families don’t. I think people always need to be cognisant that there is a person behind the title or the campaign,” said Doherty.
“People have the right to question, but we have the right to be respected as well.”
In Fort St. John, Bob Zimmer said he’s happy voters gave their confidence to him for a third term.
“But it’s bittersweet that we didn’t pull off the majority that we’d hoped for. I have some concerns about the future of our resource sector, the Federal Liberals and the NDP have made overtures toward each other to work together and I just hope that we can see our resources still get to market. We’ll see where we go from here.”
As for the loss federally, Zimmer said, “I was hopeful, we knew it was going to be a tight race all along and if the balance had tipped just slightly we would have had a lot more seats and we would have pulled it off, but the voters just weren’t ready to give us that majority yet so we’ll keep working hard in Ottawa so we get it next time.”
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