VANCOUVER — In the last election in Cowichan Valley, Sonia Furstenau of the Green party took 37.24 per cent of the vote, defeating Lori Lynn Iannidinardo of the NDP by a margin of 5.61 percentage points.
Furstenau, who is now the Green party's leader, is up for re-election this year. Iannidinardo, however, is not running again.
Rob Douglas is the candidate for the NDP and Tanya Kaul is running for the BC Liberal Party.
The Cowichan Valley riding includes the communities of Cobble Hill, Duncan, Shawnigan - Mill Bay, Cowichan Bay and Lake Cowichan.
There are 48,879 registered voters in the riding, compared to 45,641 in the last election.
As of Oct. 20, 10,702 vote-by-mail packages had been issued to registered voters.
The previous voter turnout rate in the riding was 67.58 per cent, compared to 61.18 per cent provincewide.
At dissolution, the NDP held 41 seats, the BC Liberal Party had 41 seats and the Green party two seats. Two seats were held by Independents and one seat was vacant.
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Last election statistics at a glance:
Previous candidates (in order of rank):
1. Furstenau, Sonia
Affiliation: Green party
Total valid votes: 11,449
Vote share: 37.24 per cent
2. Iannidinardo, Lori Lynn
Affiliation: NDP
Total valid votes: 9,723
Vote share: 31.63 per cent
3. Housser, Steve
Affiliation: BC Liberal Party
Total valid votes: 8,502
Vote share: 27.66 per cent
4. Morrison, Ian
Affiliation: Independent
Total valid votes: 502
Vote share: 1.63 per cent
5. Anderson, James Robert
Affiliation: Libertarian party
Total valid votes: 302
Vote share: 0.98 per cent
6. Lockhart, Samuel
Affiliation: Independent
Total valid votes: 145
Vote share: 0.47 per cent
7. Haythornthwaite, Eden
Affiliation: Independent
Total valid votes: 119
Vote share: 0.39 per cent
Previous riding statistics at a glance:
Total registered voters: 45,641
Total registered voters who voted: 30,842
Voter turnout: 67.58 per cent
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2020 and was generated automatically.
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Digital Data Desk, The Canadian Press