Change could sweep Vancouver Island in Saturday\u2019s B.C. election. Experts say as many as five Island ridings that are currently held by the NDP, could be won by the Conservatives this time around.<\/p>\n
The lunch rush at B\u2019s Diner in Errington, buzzed with people on Friday. What was on everyone\u2019s lips was the imminent B.C. election.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited yeah.\u00a0I think it\u2019s going to be such an exciting movement tomorrow,\u201d said 29-year-old voter Brooklyn Svenson.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes no difference to me, it\u2019s about my grandkids, they do\u2026 I\u2019m voting for my grandkids,\u201d said retiree Dennis Ozero.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need a change. I think our current government just doesn\u2019t have the answers that are necessary,\u201d said retiree Peter Haseltine.<\/p>\n
Watch the story below: <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s interesting. I think at least on the left everybody\u2019s weighing options. They\u2019re split. On the right too. But it seems like its more concentrated for the Conservative Party,\u201d said Rod Moreno, a voter from Nanaimo.<\/p>\n
B\u2019s Diner, is in the riding of Ladysmith-Oceanside. One of several seats that are currently held by the NDP that polling suggests could be won by the Conservatives on Saturday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I say toss up, that means that it could go either way,\u201d said Daniel Westlake, a senior research fellow in political studies at Vancouver Island University.<\/p>\n
According to Westlake, polling shows that the NDP stronghold over Vancouver Island appears to be dramatically loosening in this election, particularly in ridings north of the Malahat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re in a place that we think of as an NDP place, but if you weren\u2019t looking at British Columbia, if you\u2019re looking at the potential density, they are rural ridings,\u201d said Westlake. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese are ridings that in a lot of other circumstances go Conservative. So that creates some really interesting dynamics to watch. And maybe why we\u2019re starting to see these ridings register as close races.\u201d<\/p>\n
Polling suggests the tightest races are in the ridings of Victoria-Beacon Hill, Cowichan Valley, Ladysmith-Oceanside, Nanaimo-Lantzville, and Mid-Island-Pacific Rim.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re not necessarily all going to swing, but yeah, that seems right on which ones are competitive and which ones will be worth looking at,\u201d said Westlake.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s going to be a lot of younger people coming in, and actually voting for once in their lives,\u201d said Svenson.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Making a recipe for a very exciting election night on Vancouver Island.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Change could sweep Vancouver Island in Saturday\u2019s B.C. election. Experts say as many as five Island ridings that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":944236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[314777,233575,49,48,35966,323269,126155,323270,323271,323272,323273,323274,44,323275,323276,323277,1062],"class_list":["post-944235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-b-c-election","tag-bc-ndp","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chek-news","tag-close-races","tag-conservative-party","tag-daniel-westlake-viu-political-studies","tag-ladysmith-parksville","tag-latest-polling","tag-mid-island-pacific-rim","tag-nanaimo-lantzville","tag-news","tag-tight-races","tag-vancouver-island-election-results","tag-victoria-beacon-hill","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=944235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/944236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=944235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=944235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=944235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}