Chilliwack-Hope candidates, along with their volunteers and supporters, gathered at various locations around Chilliwack Monday night, to watch results of the election.
Liberals gathered at Chilliwack Golf and Country Club to support their candidate, Zeeshan Khan.
"I'm feeling overall very confident," Khan told Black Press, as he watched early results come in, alongside his supporters. He spoke about those he met while campaigning, including door knocking in the riding, which includes Chilliwack, Hope and parts of the District of Kent.
"People are ready for change," he said.
Teri Westerby met with his supporters at Kelly O'Bryan's in Sardis. One of his supporters there was former Chilliwack-Kent MLA Kelli Paddon. The two embraced in the pub, as results for the election displayed on televisions.
"I'm really good, really positive and really proud of the campaign that I ran," Westerby told Black Press, "and knowing that the kids and everybody in Chilliwack can see that there's somebody fighting for them and somebody that represents them, and that they had an option to continue fighting for the future they want."
He said the results seemed to be playing out the way many predicted.
"You know, they, the Liberals did what they could to shake out the Conservatives and make sure this country didn't slip to the right, but I think as a result we saw a loss of some really strong left voices. Of course things aren't counted out yet, so we can't count ourselves out quite yet. We've got a lot of counting left to do, but we can't let ourselves continue to slip further to the right, even without the Conservatives there," he said. "We have to keep fighting for progress and using our voices to push forward."
Mark Strahl, the Conservative candidate who is running for re-election, arrived at his election night event at about 8:45 p.m. His supporters were gathered at Duke's Country Pub for a thank-you dinner, where he gave a speech.
Just after 9 p.m., Black Press Media and other news outlets declared Strahl re-elected, with 55 per cent of the vote and 40 per cent of the polls reported at that time.
More to come.
