Gordie Hogg picks up seat for Trudeau Liberals in Surrey in ‘historic win’

SURREY (NEWS 1130) – The Trudeau Liberals are celebrating a win in British Columbia after their candidate was able to snatch a Lower Mainland riding from the Conservatives on Monday night. 

In the lead-up to polling day, South Surrey-White Rock was labelled too close to call. On the night, the Liberals’ Gordie Hogg came out on top with more than 47 per cent of the vote, according to preliminary results.

The Conservatives were trying to hold onto the seat with candidate Kerry-Lynne Findlay, a former federal cabinet Minister. But her 42 per cent share of the vote wasn’t enough to keep the riding in Tory hands.

As a former White Rock Mayor and an MLA for two decades, Hogg, 71, believes he claimed victory because he knows the voters.

“I think what’s different is I’ve been here all my life and I understand this community. We’ll be able to have a much more integrated approach to being able to deal with things, we’ll have somebody who has grown up here.”

At an event at Boston Pizza on Monday night, Hogg used his victory speech to thank his family, supporters and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who made two visits to the riding during the campaign.

“I had a chance to spend some time with him individually and I think that energy in a by-election, you want to bring some focus to it and he certainly helped bring focus to that.’ Hogg says.

Hogg replaces Dianne Watts, who vacated the seat to run in the BC Liberal Leadership race, prompting the byelection.

He says he’s excited for the area of South Surrey-White Rock to be in Liberal hands.

“Very historic in that sense, I don’t think it’s ever been Liberal to my knowledge. You can go back as far as you can see, but I don’t think it’s ever been Liberal so it is historic in that sense.”

At Hogg’s event, dozens of Liberal supporters were celebrating. Ken Jones was an MLA in the nineties, and says he’s been waiting a long time for a win for the federal Liberals in the area.

“Been 45 years since I came to White Rock and ever since I came here I’ve been trying to get the Liberal MP for this riding.”

The Conservative’s Findlay was putting on a brave face after the loss.

“Here we are, but we’ve got a great unified team we’ve identified tremendous support and we feel very positive about going to 2019 for the win,” Findlay says.

The NDP candidate received 4.9 per cent of the vote, while the Green party also polled more than four per cent.

South Surrey-White Rock has an older, wealthier and whiter demographic than other ridings in Surrey. Before polls opened, Hogg listed his priorities as growing the economy and creating jobs, new investments in affordable housing and investments in roads and rapid transit south of the Fraser.

Elections Canada shows just 38 per cent of registered voters (30,259 people) turned out to the polls. That figure does not include those who registered on the day.

The byelection was one of four held across Canada on Monday, with the Liberals holding onto seats in Newfoundland and Labrador and Ontario. The Conservatives hung onto a safe seat in Saskatchewan.

 

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