Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies Conservative incumbent Bob Zimmer is used to winning his elections by large margins but on Monday, April 25, 2025, he earned his most dominant victory yet from his five election bids.
As of midnight that night, Zimmer had earned 71.2 per cent of votes cast in the riding with 219 of 272 of polls reporting in.
That’s the highest vote share he’s ever received in his five successful election campaigns since 2011, including the 69.8 per cent he earned in the 2019 federal election.
It’s also a big jump from the 60.7 per cent vote share he earned in the 2021 federal election.
As of Monday evening, here were the vote totals in the riding, arranged for most to least votes:
- Bob Zimmer (Conservative): 30,061 votes, 71.2 per cent vote share
- Peter Njenga (Liberal): 8,047 votes, 19.1 per cent vote share
- Cory “Grizz” Longley (NDP): 2,566 votes, 6.1 per cent vote share
- Mary Forbes (Green): 950 votes, 2.3 per cent vote share
- David Watson (PPC): 573 votes, 1.4 per cent vote share
Reached by phone from Fort St. John around 9:45 p.m., Zimmer said it the night felt like a hockey game where his team had scored a few goals but the outcome was still up in the air when it came to the national picture.
Locally, he thanked constituents for sending him back to Ottawa with such a strong mandate.
“I think mainly it was just the cost of living, affordability,” Zimmer said of campaign issues that resonated in Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies.
“The threat to their livelihoods is the foremost concern that I hear from most people and they’ve seen real effects of really bad decisions … we lost some of the best mills in our riding all when we have a great fibre basket ready to be logged and to be utilized.”
He said he thought locals were sending a strong message to Ottawa that Canada’s formerly thriving national resource sectors can’t be ignored, something he said both the federal Liberals and provincial NDP have been guilty of.
As for what made the difference in the federal campaign, Zimmer said he thought it was the replacement of former prime minister Justin Trudeau as Canadians’ number one enemy with Donald Trump, despite 10 years of Liberal government.
“I think it’s going to get worse with Mark Carney,” Zimmer said.
“It’s going to be similar in its beginnings, but once he finally has a seat in the house, which it looks like he has now, I think he’s going to be way worse than Trudeau because I think he was the brains behind Trudeau and the direction that Justin was going. Now you have somebody that, I think, does not have Canadians’ interests at heart.”
Despite the failure to form government and some members of the Tory shadow cabinet losing their seats, Zimmer expressed optimism at Conservative gains in places like Northern Ontario, Atlantic Canada, Newfoundland and Vancouver Island.
As the interview was taking place, results showed NDP incumbent Taylor Bachrach leading in the neighbouring riding of Skeena-Bulkley Valley over Conservative challenger Ellis Ross.
Zimmer expressed confidence that Ross’ results would improve as the smaller but Conservative-leaning communities in the riding reported their results. As of midnight, Ross had established a lead of around 6.2 per cent over Bachrach.
In the Ottawa-area riding of Carleton, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was facing the potential loss of his own seat. As of midnight., he was trailing Liberal challenger Bruce Fanjoy by 2,579 votes with 13 polls still left to report.
Despite that difficult situation, Poilievre signalled that he would remain as party leader as the Tories added around 25 seats to their pre-election total.
Zimmer said that Poilievre still has his support.
“I’ve never had as much confidence in a leader as I have right now with our leader, Pierre Poilievre,” Zimmer said. “Whatever happens tonight, I have full confidence that he will continue to lead our party.”
As for Singh, Zimmer said he “deserves full credit for the demise of the NDP” after supporting Trudeau’s Liberals.
“He will not be missed and I think the NDP will have an opportunity to rebuild under a new leader,” Zimmer said. “I think it was well deserved. He really created his own crisis for his own party and himself. He did it to himself.”
Heading back to Ottawa, he said he wasn’t sure what role he would play in the next Conservative shadow cabinet but that he would continue to champion the riding, its residents and natural resources. In the last Parliament, he served as the Tories' northern affairs critic.
He said the emissions cap established by the federal Liberals would continue to hamper resources development, especially for the energy sector.
