BC NDP says Kelowna Centre close enough that mail-in ballots could change the result

In an election that was a decisive win for the BC Conservatives broadly, Kelowna Centre is still a close race.

It was a rematch between BC Conservative Kristina Loewen and BC NDP Loyal Wooldridge. In 2024 the two candidates faced off and Loewen won by 40 votes after the final count, this time around she’s ahead by 132 in the preliminary count.

Wooldridge said he’s sitting in limbo because this is how things shook out two years ago.

“We’re in basically the same scenario,” he said. “In 2024, on election night, I think we were about 145 votes behind. This time we’re 131 votes behind. So very similar, almost to the number.”

Preliminary and absentee ballots are going to be counted in November with final results being released on Nov. 10, and he said they could change the outcome.

“The experience from 2024 has taught me that you can never confidently say a win or a loss until we go through that process. . . It’s not over until every single vote is counted,” he said.

Loewen declared victory to her supporters at an event on election night.

The big picture is much different than it was in 2024. Last time, the BC NDP won a narrow majority and this time the BC Conservatives have a sweeping majority with 63 seats.

Wooldridge said BC NDP voters in Kelowna Centre came out in bigger numbers than the provincial average because of the way he campaigned.

“I credit that to our local campaign team. We were very nimble in how we campaigned with an omni approach between how we reached folks and how we communicated. We really didn’t toe the central messaging line. So we did things a little bit differently here locally. And I think the data is showing a reflection of that,” he said.

The preliminary count is 10,791 votes for Loewen and 10,659 votes for Wooldridge.

Loewen did not return iNFOnews.ca’s call for an interview.