It seems as though voters on northern Vancouver Island were more inclined show up than in a lot of other places in B.C.
Both North Island-Powell River and Courtenay-Alberni placed the top 10 for voter turnout on Monday.
Elections Canada’s numbers show that 69.37 per cent of North Island-Powell River’s registered voters cast a ballot. That’s good for eighth overall in the province. The numbers were even better in Courtenay-Alberni, which saw a voter turnout of 70.81 per cent placing it fourth overall in British Columbia.
Saanich-Gulf Islands came in first with a 73.12 per cent turnout. The numbers are only unofficial because they only count voters who were registered before Monday and none that registered on election day itself.
Although both ridings were in the top ten for turnout this year, the numbers seem to have slipped from the last federal election.
In 2015 Elections Canada says there were 81,377 registered voters in North Island-Powell River, of which 60,713 decided to vote, or 74.6 per cent. There was a similar percentage for Courtenay-Alberni four years ago, with 70,034 of 92,266 voters casting a ballot, or 75.9 per cent.
The NDP incumbents were re-elected in both districts. Rachel Blaney picked up 23,481 votes, or 37.8 per cent of the total cast in North Island-Powell River and beating her closest competitor, Conservative Shelley Downey, by 3,350. In Courtenay-Alberni Gord Johns garnered 29,407 votes, or 41.3 per cent, besting second-place Conservative Byron Horner by 5,891.
