Liberal Terry Beech holds onto Burnaby North-Seymour riding

CTV National News: Behind the numbers Omar Sachedina and Nik Nanos explain how the Liberals won a minority mandate despite the Conservatives securing the popular vote.

Vancouver — Liberal incumbent Terry Beech has held the battleground riding of Burnaby North-Seymour, according to the CTV News Decision Desk.

Beech had secured about 39 per cent of counted votes as of 10 p.m., putting him about 10 percentage points ahead of NDP challenger Jim Hanson.

Conservative candidate Kelsey Shein was trailing behind in third with about 26 per cent of the vote, while the Greens' Peter Dolling had just under 10 per cent.

People's Party of Canada candidate Brad Nickerson had secured just 2.2 per cent of counted votes.

Beech has represented the riding, which includes the terminus of the Trans Mountain Pipeline, since it was created in 2015.

He famously bucked his own party by voting against the controversial pipeline expansion in 2017, citing an obligation to represent the views of his constituents.

The NDP came within a few percentage points of winning Burnaby North-Seymour in 2019 with high-profile former MP Svend Robinson, and mounted another strong campaign this year with Hanson, a personal injury lawyer and two-term District of North Vancouver councillor.

The heated race saw an estimated 17,383 constituents turn out at advanced polls, an increase of 30 per cent over the advanced turnout in 2019.

There were also nearly 5,400 mail-in ballots requested in the riding, though it's unclear how many were returned.