BC Liberals win Surrey South byelection

BC Liberals hold on to Surrey South Elenore Sturko is the new MLA for Surrey South after winning a byelection.

The BC Liberals have won the byelection in Surrey South, with voters electing Elenore Sturko to represent the riding in the legislature.

Preliminary results posted online Saturday evening after polls closed showed Sturko, a sergeant and media spokesperson on leave from the RCMP, clinching the seat with approximately 52 per cent of the vote.

The NDP's Pauline Greaves came in second with about 30 per cent.

The riding became vacant in April when Stephanie Cadieux, a former cabinet minister with the BC Liberals, resigned to take on the job of Canada's first chief accessibility officer.

This is the second time Greaves, a teacher at Langara school of management, came up short of victory. In the 2020 election, she lost by just under 1,200 votes. She was behind Sturko by about 2,300 votes in Saturday's preliminary results.

Simran Sarai, a student at SFU, ran for the B.C. Green Party, Harman Bhangu, who owns a trucking firm, took on the challenge for the Conservative Party of B.C., while Jason Bax represented the Libertarians in the byelection.

The final results will be confirmed on Sept. 14.