The Greens鈥� Elizabeth May was far ahead of her Conservative and NDP rivals in Saanich-Gulf Islands Monday night, on her way to her fourth term office.
May was about 7,500 votes ahead of Conservative David Busch with 230 of 236 polls reporting.
However, there are still the mail-in ballots still be counted. The riding had the secondhighest number of mail-in ballots requested in the country, with 10,457. Those will be opened Tuesday and verified before being counted.
Elections Canada has warned that results may not be known in some ridings until Friday.
鈥淢y constituents know how hard I work for them, but I also know how much I owe them for their willingness to continue to take a chance on a Green member of Parliament, knowing I won鈥檛 be in a majority government, knowing I won鈥檛 be what the Conservative candidate kept saying during this election campaign, that without a seat at the table, in government, you couldn鈥檛 accomplish anything,鈥� May said Monday night.
The former Green Party leader, first elected in 2011, was disappointed that a party that has run a full slate of candidates in past elections wasn鈥檛 able to do so this time amid a climate crisis.
鈥淚 think as a party, we鈥檙e run by our membership so the members will be wanting to have a review of what happened in preparation,鈥� said May.
New party leader Annamie Paul lost her run in the Ontario riding of Toronto Centre on Monday night. Paul congratulated May on her win.
May said Paul chose a challenging riding in which to run, a Liberal stronghold, but conceded it鈥檚 where she was born and has deep roots.
鈥淭he questions of Annamie鈥檚 future are really up to Annamie,鈥� said May. 鈥淪he needs to reflect as well. I mean it鈥檚 a very disappointing defeat for her in Toronto Centre and she鈥檒l need to think about her political future, but the party is really strong. We鈥檙e here to stay.鈥�
May said the Liberals took a gamble in this 鈥減ower grab鈥� election and she is 鈥渞eally relieved鈥� they didn鈥檛 get a majority.
鈥淎 majority parliament with the Liberals feeling smug would be very bad for climate, but a minority parliament where they go back chastened 鈥� and I鈥檓 afraid it means going back to the polls again 鈥� means we will stay in parliament and we will push as hard as we can and work across party lines, and see if what we can deliver on the timelines we have, which are vanishingly short,鈥� she said.
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