Renee Merrifield excited to join KelownaNow for 'historical' BC election night

Outgoing Kelowna–Mission MLA Renee Merrifield has promised an exciting night of analysis and commentary as the provincial election results are announced this Saturday.

She will be sitting alongside video host Jim Csek in KelownaNow's studio from around 6 pm until the winners are announced.

The duo – backed by KelownaNow's full team of reporters – will monitor both the Central Okanagan and the wider province as the BC NDP, Conservative Party of BC and BC Greens vie for power.

They’ll also keep a keen eye on the various independents running in the region.

“This is going to be historical,” Merrifield said. “Never before have we had so many independents running, never have we had such a close race that's very difficult to call right now.”

She also said the results will come through “faster than we've ever seen before” due to the employment of electronic tabulation machines.

Merrifield highlighted two areas of particular interest so far in the campaign: the city of Surrey, which she said “can really decide and shift the balance of power,” and huge advance voting numbers (more than 778,000 as of Oct. 15).

“Typically, [advance votes are] a change vote,” she said. “So when you see very strong advance polls, typically that means that there's actually a huge wave of change that will be coming. It's really exciting to see.”

But Merrifield, who was first elected for the BC Liberals – now BC United – in 2020, said there could still be problems for John Rustad’s challenging Conservatives.

“I think that there could have been a way, way better transition done [when BC United's leader endorsed the Conservatives]. And, really, it was a huge missed opportunity. I think it might actually be detrimental to the BC Conservative Party long-term.”

She added: “I mean, if we get a minority government, independents could be the tail wagging the dog. This might be the story of the independents who are running and actually win their ridings.”

KelownaNow's election night coverage with Merrifield will be streamed on X and YouTube. Updates will also be posted on our website.

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