B.C. New Democratic Party MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert was re-elected in Vancouver-West End by almost 5,000 votes Tuesday night after campaigning to address affordability and trans rights. But a disappointed Chandra Herbert realized that he will have to work towards those goals from the opposition benches once more after the NDP lost in the wider election.
"The hunger for change in the West End was huge, they wanted to change this government," Chandra Herbert said. "Whatever I can do to bring that change, I will, just not on the government side."
Chandra Herbert, the NDP's critic for tourism, culture and art, won with 9,776 votes, 57.2 per cent of the total.
Chandra Herbert was the youngest MLA in the legislature when elected in Vancouver-Burrard in a 2008 byelection and was elected again in the 2009 general election in the new riding of Vancouver-West End. The riding covers the downtown area from Stanley Park down to Burrard, Georgia and Jervis.
"It's an incredible honour to serve the people of the West End. They put their trust in me again and I'm grateful for it," he said. "I've gained a lot of experience and that will allow me to be a lot more efficient at what I do. It will allow me to fight that much harder for the community and hopefully bring some really big results."
The next closest candidate, B.C. Liberal Scott Harrison, landed 4,818 votes, 28 per cent. Harrison is the president of the riding's constituency agency, and, outside the writ period, an executive assistant to Steve Thomson, minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources. Harrison's campaign focused on economic development and capital upgrades to St. John's Hospital.
Other candidates in the riding were the Green party's Jodie Emery, a marijuana activist who runs Cannabis Culture magazine, who had 1,896 votes and independent Ron Herbert, who had 112. Emery is known for her activism on marijuana and is married to incarcerated activist Marc Emery. Herbert, originally a Conservative candidate, was dropped after a Twitter post using a sexist curse word to address B.C. premier Christy Clark. Mathew Kagis of the Work Less Party got 81 votes and John Clark of the B.C. Libertarian party, got 398.
