B.C. ELECTION 2017: Eye on the Penticton riding

PENTICTON – It promises to be a nail-biter in the Penticton riding for the Liberals and NDP and Green Party.

Liberal MLA Dan Ashton won the riding in 2013, but not by much. He beat then New Democratic candidate Richard Cannings by 1,264 votes, taking 45.8 per cent of the popular vote to Cannings' 40.3 per cent.

• Dan Ashton: Fiscally responsible veteran politician is vying for second term as Penticton MLA.
• Tarik Sayeed: Penticton City Councillor hopes to unseat incumbent Ashton by being the people's candidate.
• Connie Sahlmark:  The recent graduate's fiesty, grass-roots campaign has won much praise, but will it count at the poll?

Since then, Cannings went on to run and win a seat in the federal election for the NDP in 2015.

This is the first provincial election for NDP candidate Tarik Sayeed, in a riding that hasn’t been New Democrat since 1991. The NDP has been making up some ground in the past 26 years however

It remains to be seen what presence Green Party candidate Connie Sahlmark will have on the ballot. She put together a spirited campaign, and could gain some ground for her party, in addition to splitting votes to the ultimate misfortune of one of the other two parties.

The Green Party of B.C. wasn’t represented in 2013, but Green candidate Julius Bloomfield took 15.8 per cent of the popular vote in 2009.

There were 25,163 valid ballots cast in 2013, making up 58.27 per cent of registered voters in the Penticton riding.

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