Prime Minister-designate Mark Carney underperformed his federal vote share in Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies and overperformed it in Cariboo-Prince George, but still commanded a vast lead over his rivals in the Liberal Party of Canada’s leadership race.
On Sunday, it was announced that Carney had won the race to replace Justin Trudeau, receiving 85.9 per cent of available points on the first ballot.
Former deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland received eight per cent of available points, former government house leader Karina Gould received 3.2 per cent of points and former Pierrefonds-Dollars Liberal MP Frank Baylis received three per cent of the points.
Instead of a straight popular vote, each of the 338 federal riding in the country received 100 points, which were distributed to the four leadership candidates based on their vote percentages within those ridings.
Results posted on the party’s website break down how many people in each riding voted for each of the candidates and how many points they received.
In Cariboo-Prince George, which is currently represented in the House of Commons by Conservative MP Todd Doherty, 293 people voted.
Carney received 256 votes and 87.38 points, higher than his share of the points across the whole country. Freeland got 22 votes and 7.51 points, slightly lower than her federal vote share.
Baylis, who placed fourth across the whole country, came in third in this riding with eight votes and 2.73 points. Gould had seven votes in her fourth-place finish, worth 2.39 points.
In Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies, which Conservative MP Bob Zimmer represents in the House of Commons, Carney’s share of the 196 votes cast was still commanding, but not quite as high.
The former governor of the Bank of Canada got 162 votes, worth 82.65 points. Freeland outperformed her federal vote share but was still a distant second with 21 votes and 10.71 points.
Gould was in third place in this riding with another seven votes, worth 3.57 per cent. Baylis came in fourth with six votes and 3.06 points.
Across both Prince George ridings, 489 votes were cast: 418 for Carney (85.5 per cent), 43 for Freeland (8.8 per cent), 14 for Gould (2.87 per cent) and 14 for Baylis (2.86 per cent)
Whether Carney can swing his big local victories into seats in the next federal election is another story entirely.
Since Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies was created in 1968, voters have only sent a Liberal MP to Ottawa once, in 1968. In all other elections, the winning candidate has been for the Conservative Party of Canada or one of the parties that merged to form it.
Cariboo-Prince George has only elected Conservatives since it was created in 2004. This riding was formed from two other ridings, Cariboo-Chilcotin and Prince-George Bulkley-Valley.
Cariboo-Chilcotin only ever elected Conservative or related candidates and Prince George-Bulkley Valley was much the same, except for between 1988 and 1993 when Brian L. Gardiner served as the NDP MP for the riding.
