Selina Robinson is heading back to Victoria to represent the riding of Coquitlam-Maillardville for the BC NDP — only this time, it looks like she’ll be part of a majority government.
According to the Tri-City News live election results map, Robinson has won more than 58% of the popular vote with 93 of 94 polls in the riding having reported. The same map, which is being compiled by Canadian Press, is projecting the BC NDP will win 55 seats, 11 more than is required to form a majority government.
BC Liberal candidate Will Davis is second and BC Green Party candidate Nicola Spurling is third.
In a call from a BC NDP “bunker” housing all Tri-City candidates, Robinson told the Tri-City News the night's results are an endorsement of the NDP's work to help get British Columbians through the current public health crisis.
“I’m feeling like B.C. and the Tri-Cities have certainly spoken who they want to pull them through this pandemic,” she said. “Getting through COVID, making sure vaccines are there.”
When it comes to her focus on the riding of Coquitlam-Maillardville, Robinson said her constituents have sent a clear message.
“It’s housing affordability, it’s childcare, it’s health care. Those are the things I heard on the phone, at Mundy park off-leash areas.”
The former minister of municipal affairs and housing when the legislature was dissolved, Robinson said the implementation of a rent freeze as well as an acceleration of construction of affordable housing will be some of the first things the government tackles when work at the legislature resumes.
This will be Robinson’s third term as an MLA. The former Coquitlam city councillor was first elected in 2013, when she defeated Steve Kim by just 41 votes. She had originally been declared to have finished second to Kim on election night, but the results swung in her favour by 35 votes once absentee ballots were counted and the margin of her victory increased by another six votes after a judicial recount.
In 2017, Robinson defeated Kim by 2,919 votes.
Despite her more comfortable lead Saturday night, the lesson from 2013 is one Robinson said she hasn’t forgotten.
“There’s a bit of a celebratory air,” she said, with the sound of champagne being uncorked in the background. “For me, personally, I’m pretty comfortable, but I mean you never know until the last ballot is counted.
“There’s still thousands of votes out there.”
Even once all the votes are counted at the riding's 95 polling stations, results could change as mail-in ballots are compiled.
-With reporting from Stefan Labbé
IMPORTANT NOTE / NOTE TO READERS about mail-in ballots: Due to the anticipated number of mail-in ballots, the election night vote count will not be complete. The Canadian Press will continue to publish updated riding results to the map and banners as available until counting is complete
