TWO of the North Shore's electoral districts that generated much ballyhoo about being swing ridings - North Vancouver-Lonsdale and North Vancouver-Seymour - appeared to be staying in the grips of the B.C. Liberal incumbents Tuesday night.
North Vancouver-Lonsdale B.C. Liberal candidate Naomi Yamamoto was leading the riding with 47 per cent compared to New Democrat challenger Craig Keating's 40 per cent at press deadline.
The wide margin in Lonsdale came as a surprise even to some on the B.C. Liberal Campaign.
"I was looking at a 200-vote victory for us," said George Simpson, Yamamoto's campaign volunteer in charge of identifying voters, as the first polls came in.
Asked how confident he was the lead would hold, Simpson alluded to the tricky craft of predicting voter behaviour.
"Put it this way: I have lost more money on elections. . . ." he said, breaking into laughter.
Despite the slim lead at the start, there was a prevailing attitude of optimism around Yamamoto's campaign reception.
Keating had the nicest locale for an election night reception on the fifth floor of the North Vancouver school district building, but his very nervous supporters were gathered around a screen showing the disappointing election results data as it rolled in. Some speculated that Keating could take the lead in the numbers, depending on exactly which polling stations ballots had been counted.
Neither Yamamoto or Keating could be reached for comment on election night.
The Green Party's Ryan Conroy netted just under 10 per cent of North Vancouver-Lonsdale's votes, while B.C. Conservative challenger Allan Molyneaux got only three per cent. Laurence Watt, the 18-year-old Libertarian candidate took less than one per cent, as did Communist party of B.C. candidate Kimball Cariou.
In North Vancouver-Seymour, B.C. Liberal Jane Thornthwaite showed the riding is in fact a safe seat for her party, winning with slightly more than 50 per cent of the vote at North Shore News' press deadline.
NDP candidate Jim Hanson took about one-third of the votes. Asked how he was feeling about the race, Hanson was still glowing. "I've never been better. It's onto the next chapter of my life," he said.
While it was a disappointing night for the NDP - and polling firms - provincially, Hanson saw reason for optimism in his own riding. "In a race where the NDP lost ground in the rest of the province, we actually gained ground in our riding and that shows the payoff of all the hard work we put in."
Hanson also expressed congratulations for Thornthwaite and thanked her for her service to the community.
As for running again, that would be a decision for another day, Hanson said. Jaime Webbe, North Vancouver-Seymour's independent candidate who generated a fair bit of buzz during her campaign finished the night with roughly 4.5 per cent of the vote.
She said earlier in the evening she was making no predictions on election night. "I'm just really happy with the way the whole campaign is gone. Because of that, I feel so satisfied," she said. "I started out just to ask people to change the way they see their vote and I've had so many people that have said to me they love the fresh ideas, the new ways of looking at old problems and I feel like I've really succeeded in what I set out to do."
Running a campaign that landed on different spots of the political spectrum on number of issues, Webbe couldn't say exactly who she was drawing her votes from. "I'm an equal opportunity vote-stealer," she said with a laugh.
As to whether North Vancouver voters will see her name on a ballot again, Webbe said it will depend on the political climate at the time, though she plans to stay active hammering away on the same issues she campaigned on.
