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- 🗳 Election results: Westshore riding may tip BC's fate
🗳 Election results: Westshore riding may tip BC's fate
Wild weather. Soccer stars save season.
Hello there!
We hope you managed to stay dry out there this past weekend. Today we have the latest on the election results, including the local riding that has ended up being provincially crucial.
We also have the latest updates on some turbulent times in both local sports and local weather.
— Cam
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ELECTION RESULTS
Westshore delivers 2 easy NDP wins—and an unexpected, province-shaping close race
Dana Lajeunesse / NDP. Marina Sapozhnikov / Conservatives. Images via campaign candidate Instagrams.
Juan de Fuca Malahat: NDP lead, but no winner yet
As of Sunday's Elections BC update, the BC NDP’s Dana Lajeunesse, a Sooke councillor, was up by 23 votes over BC Conservatives’ Marina Sapozhnikov, a Cobble Hill doctor. It is BC's narrowest margin after the initial ballot count.
The narrow result will spark a hand-counted recount, done mainly on Oct 26-28. That will include additional mail and out-of-jurisdiction ballots, rather than just re-counting to check if the 23-vote lead is accurate (all districts add these additional ballots eventually, but they don't usually affect the outcome). Because the overall election is so close, this seat and a few others can swing the election result.
The riding is a new one created out of the more rural part of John Horgan's oversized longtime riding and the southern section of the former Cowichan riding. Both Horgan and Ravi Parmar (who ran in the other spinoff, Langford-Highlands) had dominated the previous riding, and the NDP were expected to hold this new spinoff albeit more narrowly.
Green candidate David Evans, a coffee company owner, had one of his party's strongest vote shares at 23% but fell a few thousand votes short of making it a three-way race in a riding that included parts of Sonia Furstenau's former seat. The Greens may soon hold the balance of power, by winning 2 seats while neither the NDP nor Conservatives look likely to hit the 47 needed for a majority.
Esquimalt – Colwood: Newcomer Rotchford holds seat for NDP
The Esquimalt councillor won with 51% after being subbed in following incumbent Mitzi Dean's late decision not to run again.
Langford – Highlands: Parmar holds new urban Westshore riding
After winning last year's byelection, former Sooke School District chair Ravi Parmar hit nearly 52% in the new smaller riding.
NEWS
Rainfall & flooding forces Westshore closures
Sooke River rising. Photo: District of Sooke
Yesterday the West Island was taken off of a Flood Warning that had been applied over the weekend, with the rest of the Island at the lower-tier Flood Watch. The atmospheric river storm weather has now mostly gone, but its effects may last into the week.
On Saturday, Hwy 14 was closed from approximately Jordan River to Port Renfrew all day due to washout. That closure has been extended, and the next update will not come until Wednesday morning. If you've been affected by the local flooding and road closures, you can reply to this email with your story and we may include it in our coverage.
The CRD asked on Saturday for those in the Port Renfrew Water Service Area to reduce water use in case the heavy rain and flooding created a shortage.
During the storm, Sooke announced that the potholes gateway would be closed as a precaution due to the rising of the river; they were reopened late Sunday morning. In Feb. 2020, three young men died after being swept away while visiting the Sooke River during a storm.
On Friday, Sooke opened up a self-serve sandbag station at the Ed Macgregor Park parking lot.
The weather interfered with many people’s trips to vote, here and elsewhere in BC. Some polling places on Mayne, Denman, and Hornby were closed in the morning due to weather but reopened. Experts speculated that the weather could suppress overall turnout, and that fall weather may be a factor in why BC municipal elections typically draw fewer people than provincial ones.
Around the 'Shore
🚲 Langford seeks feedback on Latoria active transit plan: With a new elementary opening Sept. 25, Langford is expediting Phase One of work along Latoria; from Triangle Trail to Whimfield Terrace, improved sidewalks and bike lanes on both sides are being added. Some locals weighed in on the project and its later phases last night at council, but you can still do so via the survey that closes today.
🏉 Langford-based national women's rugby team will lead Pool B at 2025 World Cup: The locally trained team is currently ranked #2 globally and just finished 2nd in the WXV 1 tourney following a summer Olympic silver. Canada will now face Scotland (#7 globally), Wales (#10), and Fiji (#17) next August. “It’s exciting to actually have the pool drawn,” Oak Bay's own Sophie de Goede said, “It makes everything feel even more real and concrete.” Canada last played Wales in 2023 (a 42-22 win), Fiji in 2022 (24-7 win), and Scotland way back in 2018 (a narrow 28-25 win).
🏈 Rebels fall in BC football finale: The Westshore team was defeated 23-17 in Kelowna on Saturday after a pair of 4th-quarter field goals by the Okanagan Sun broke open a tie game. The Rebels had battled back from 3-17 thanks to a pair of touchdowns enabled by Liam Kroeger interceptions. The team will not repeat as Cullen Cup champs or national finalists, as last year's 12-1 squad did. But respectable postseason showings have salvaged a season in which Westshore swooned to just 5-5 (now 6-6) including 4 straight losses before the playoffs.
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SPORTS
Pacific FC make playoffs in down-to-the-wire home finale
A goal by Victoria's own Dario Zanatta in the 32nd minute stamped the local team's ticket to the CanPL playoffs for a 5th time. PFC entered yesterday's Langford match with a narrow lead in the race for the final playoff spot, and needed to either win to stave them off or hope that neither gained enough points to tie or pass them. With a 1-0 win over league-best Forge FC (Hamilton), Pacific took control of its own future.
The games were held simultaneously so that no team would know their fate before playing. When the dust settled, it turned out PFC would have survived anyway as Vancouver FC tied 0-0 and Valour FC (Halifax) lost 1-2.
PFC had an advantage in that its opponent, Forge, had no incentive to push to win due to already having secured the #1 seed. The opponents of Vancouver and Valour, though, were the two teams (Cavalry and Ottawa) that were still jostling for the #2 seed.
In CanPL, the #2 seed is much better than the #3 due to an unusual playoff “ladder” format in which the top two teams play for a chance to go straight to the finals. The loser gets a second chance if it can beat the winner of a game between the #3 team and [the winner of a game between the #4 and #5]. Those low-seed teams would have to play and win four games to get the championship.
Last year, PFC started that ladder from the bottom rung, as the #4 seed, and won a pair of matches before its Cinderella run fell just short of the national finals. This year, the local team will have to do it all again—and go further—if it wants a second championship to put on the mantle with 2021's trophy. PFC plays on Wednesday in the Toronto area against York FC.
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Community Events
🕷 Spider speaker: Robb Bennett, a researcher at RBCM, will present on spider diversity at tomorrow’s View Royal Garden Club general meeting. Plus: A plant mini-show from members’ gardens. Wednesday 7:30pm at Wheeley Hall behind Esquimalt United.
🥾 This week is the last chance to see the exhibit “No Walk in the Woods: The History of the West Coast Trail” at the Maritime Museum. [Info]
🩸Blood Drive in Colwood was yesterday, but you can still book for today's drives in Victoria and Cowichan. [Book]
🎊 The Sooke Holiday Parade is Dec. 8; register in the next 6 weeks to be part of it. [Info]
What’s Offshore?
SAIC Anji Sincerity, via SAIC Motors
🚢 The MSC Anzu container ship (built 2015) has been anchored near Colwood and Victoria since the weekend. It sails under the flag of Madeira, an Atlantic archipelago off the northwest coast of Africa that is an autonomous region of Portugal and has about 250k people.
🚢 The 200-metre-long car carrier SAIC Anji Harmony (built 2024, sailing under flag of Liberia) was parked beside the Anzu yesterday while en route from South Korea to New Westminster. SAIC, a Chinese state-owned auto company, has recently ordered several “dual-fuel" massive car carriers that run partly on LNG. The Harmony's sibling, the 7,600-parking-space Sincerity, became the first such ship of its size last winter.
⛴ The Ronja Islander Fish Carrier (built 2019) passed by Metchosin on Saturday en route from Gold River to Vancouver. Grieg Seafood says the vessel was custom-built to be able to perform sea lice removals and safe transfers of live fish.
🛥 The Kuluta and Haisla Explorer passenger ships posted up beside Race Rocks yesterday.
Westshore Snaps
Nature's resilience. This "Rockwall Art" is adjacent to Island Highway close to Portage Bay. – Richard Steward, View Royal
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