B.C. Election Day: Richmond and Delta voters to choose six MLAs

It's election day in B.C. and residents in Richmond and Delta are heading to the polls to choose six MLAs to represent them for the next four years.

Published Oct 19, 2024  •  Last updated 0 minutes ago  •  4 minute read

It's election day in B.C. and residents in Richmond and Delta are heading to the polls to choose six MLAs to represent them for the next four years. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO /PNG

It’s election day in B.C. and residents in Richmond and Delta are heading to the polls to choose six MLAs to represent them for the next four years.

For information on how to cast your vote in Richmond and Delta, click here. And here is the list of candidates in each of the cities’ six ridings, including:

• Richmond Centre
• Richmond-Bridgeport
• Richmond-Queensborough
• Richmond-Steveston
• Delta North
• Delta South

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If you are still deciding who to vote for, check out our handy guide outlining 12 hot topics and where the three major parties stand on each one HERE. And you can read more about what’s at stake in this year’s election for Richmond and Delta residents below.

Follow our live-blog HERE throughout the day and night for the latest election news from around B.C., and we’ll keep this post updated tonight with Richmond and Delta election results and reaction. You can also learn more about how the votes will be counted HERE.

Richmond hasn’t been an NDP hotbed, historically speaking.

That changed in the 2020 election, when the NDP took three of four Richmond ridings from the B.C. Liberals.

If John Rustad’s Conservatives hope to win the 2024 election, they probably have to win them back.

All three NDP incumbents — Henry Yao, Arman Singh and Kelly Greene — are running again, as is Teresa Wat, who has won three straight elections as a Liberal.

But Wat is now running as a Conservative. She was part of the change from the B.C. Liberals to B.C. United under United Leader Kevin Falcon, but bolted to the Conservatives in July, one of the factors in the United party ending its election campaign in August.

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Wat is running in the new riding of Richmond-Bridgeport, which used to be called Richmond-North Centre. She cruised to victory in 2020 with 51 per cent of the vote. Lindi Li is running for the NDP, and former Georgia Straight editor Charlie Smith is running as an independent.

Two of the NDP candidates also won more than half the vote in 2020 — Henry Yao in Richmond-Centre (then known as Richmond-South Centre) and Kelly Greene in Richmond-Steveston.

The NDP’s Aman Singh picked up Richmond-Queensborough with 47.65 per cent of the vote, upsetting the sitting Liberal MP, radio host Jas Johal.

The races could be very tight. Yao won Richmond-Centre by only 135 votes, 6,743 to 6,564 for Alexa Loo of the Liberals.

This time his main opponent is Conservative Hon Chan, who has worked for Fairchild Television as a news anchor, news editor, and talk show host. But there’s a wild card in play in independent candidate Wendy Yuan, who was set to be the United candidate until the party folded Aug. 28.

Another former United candidate, Jackie Lee, is running as an independent in Richmond-Steveston. Michelle Mollineaux is carrying the Conservative banner against Greene, a former Richmond city councillor.

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In Richmond-Queensborough, the NDP’s Singh is up against Conservative Steve Kooner, a lawyer. Kooner has one of the more distinctive personal bios on his Conservative web page: it says he “was born into an iconic music family, as Steve’s father is a former superstar Punjabi recording artist … who had many hit songs in the 1980s.”

Crime and safety are big issues in Richmond. Earlier this year, a proposal by Richmond council to explore the possibility of a supervised consumption site for drug users in the Richmond hospital prompted a public outcry, and was nixed by the province.

The two ridings in Delta split in 2020.

NDP powerhouse Ravi Kahlon romped to victory in Delta North with 56.78 per cent of the vote. Kahlon’s profile has only increased as the NDP’s housing minister and government house leader, and it would be a major upset if Conservative Raj Veauli, the Green party’s Nick Dickinson-Wilde or the Freedom party’s Manqoosh Khan beat him.

In Delta South, Liberal Ian Paton won with 51.7 per cent of the vote. Paton is now running as a Conservative against the NDP’s Jason McCormick. Unlike in many ridings, no third parties or independents chose to run in the riding, which Paton won in 2017 and 2020.

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Read more of our B.C. election coverage in these municipalities:

• Vancouver
• Surrey
• Burnaby
• Richmond and Delta
• Langley
• North Vancouver and West Vancouver
• Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and New Westminster
• Maple Ridge and Port Moody
• Abbotsford and Chilliwack
• Okanagan and around B.C.
• Vancouver Island

RACE FOR B.C.: Follow our coverage of the 2024 B.C. election campaign HERE. Not yet a subscriber? Please click HERE for a special subscription offer.

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