Preliminary election results in the federal Similkameen-South Okanagan-West Kootenay riding project Conservative candidate Helena Konanz as the winner in the 2025 election.
With all 281 polls reporting Konanz came gathered about 4700 more votes than Liberal candidate Gloria Morgan.
"I am really excited and so honoured that I would be chosen as a member of Parliament for this riding," Konanz told reporters as she arrived to celebrate her victory at a brewery in Penticton.
Konanz added she was very nervous in the early hours of vote counting when the difference was at times around 50 votes.
"My message is that if you know me at all, you know I will work incredibly hard for you," said Konanz.
"I know there are issues here that are really important. Things have changed in the last 10 years that we need to address. We cannot ignore some of the social issues, for example, that have been happening in Penticton and the rest of the riding and I really want to focus on those."
After coming in second place, Morgan said she and Konanz do not agree on many things and pledged to watch closely and hold Konanz to the promises that she made to the riding.
Surprisingly, after being an NDP stronghold for years, NDP candidate Linda Sankey trailed by about 19,000 votes.
The riding, formerly South Okanagan-West Kootenay, had been represented by Richard Cannings for the NDP from 2015 until his retirement this year.
On election night, Sankey told Black Press, "I think Canadians were so terrified of what was happening to the south of us that local folks were willing to do just about anything to ensure that we didn't have a Conservative majority government in Canada ..."
The riding underwent some major changes following the 2021 census and 2022 electoral redistribution, picking up the entire Similkameen Valley in the west, and losing Nakusp, Arrow Lakes and Trail in the east.
The new riding stretches from Rossland to Princeton and includes Castlegar, Penticton and the smaller communities in between.
Voter turnout in the riding was 72 per cent. Konanz received 30,073 votes (44 per cent), followed by Morgan with 25,390 (37 per cent), Sankey with 11,033 (16 per cent). Green candidate Philip Mansfield received 1065 votes (two per cent) and PPC candidate Barry Dewar received 660 votes (one per cent).
More live results are available here.
