Kevin Acton
Former BC United candidate and Lumby Mayor Kevin Acton ran as an Independent in Saturday's provincial election, getting almost 4,200 votes. The incumbent NDP MLA, Harwinder Sandhu,, won over the BC Conservative candidate Dennis Giesbrecht by less than 400 votes.听
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Kevin Acton isn鈥檛 accepting any blame from small-c conservatives like himself. And he isn鈥檛 feeling any regrets either.听

Hesa国际传媒 proud to have run as an Independent in the Vernon-Lumby riding, drawing 15.5 per cent of the vote, even though many of those ballots would likely have otherwise gone to BC Conservative candidate Dennis Giesbrecht.

Perhaps even more surprising is that hesa国际传媒 happy incumbent NDP MLA Harwinder Sandhu prevailed in Saturdaysa国际传媒 provincial election. Not because shesa国际传媒 an NDPer, but because he believes she will do a better job than Giesbrecht, a parachute candidate from Kamloops, would have done.听

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think Giesbrecht would have served our community well,鈥 a defiant Acton said in an interview Monday. 鈥淚鈥檓 not happy the NDP won the election, but I鈥檓 much happier to have a local MLA who understands our community, and who has been here for a long time.鈥

Acton, the mayor Lumby, had been the BC United candidate for Vernon-Lumby before the collapse of that party just before Labour Day. He had hoped for a while to be selected as the BC Conservative candidate for the riding, but after hearing nothing back from Leader John Rustad, he decided to run as an Independent.听

鈥淚鈥檓 not an idiot. After waiting to hear from the Conservatives, I hadn鈥檛 heard from them. So I said to my team, 鈥楲ook, these guys are obviously not going to pick me up'. So we decided I should go forward as an Independent before the Conservatives get out here and get something going,鈥 Acton said.听

The day after Acton declared as an Independent candidate, Giesbrecht, a Kamloops resident, was named as the BC Conservative candidate for Vernon Lumby. He promised to move to Vernon if elected.听

On Saturday, Sandhu won the Vernon-Lumby riding by less than 400 votes over Giesbrecht. Acton got almost 4,200 votes.

Across sa国际传媒, there was one other riding, Richmond-Stevenson, where a former BC United candidate, Jackie Lee, ran as an Independent and won just enough votes, 10.1 per cent, to likely have deprived the BC Conservative candidate a victory. The NDP candidate won that riding by less than two per cent of the vote.听

If Acton and Lee hadn鈥檛 run, it could well be argued, the election outcome on Saturday would have been 47 seats for the BC Conservatives and 44 for the NDP. That would have given the BC Conservatives a narrow majority government.听

But Acton said 鈥渘o, no, no鈥, when asked if he had any regrets about running as an Independent, and he rejected the analysis that his presence on the ballot split the vote and gave the riding, and conceivably the province, back to the NDP.听

鈥淔or me, when somebody says, 鈥榊ou split the vote鈥, I think, 鈥業 don鈥檛 know. I think the voters split the vote鈥,鈥 Acton said. 鈥淚f the voters had decided to do any research at all, and vote for somebody who is local, instead of a guy like Giesbrecht who鈥檇 lost three elections in a row, now four, this community would have control of Victoria right now.

鈥淚 provided a centre-right option, I had been campaigning since last November. I think (BC Conservative Leader John) Rustad handed the riding to the NDP by parachuting Giesbrecht in here,鈥 Acton said.听

An NDP victory in two other Okanagan ridings almost happened on Saturday. And if they had occurred, a significant factor would have been the presence of former BC United-turned-Independents on the ballots.

Loyal Wooldridge, NDP candidate for sa国际传媒 Centre, narrowly lost his bid for election, falling 179 votes behind BC Conservative candidate Kristina Loewen.听BC United-turned-Independent Michael Humer won 2,526 votes.

In Penticton-Summerland, NDP candidate Tina Lee came a close second to BC Conservative candidate Amelia Boultbee, finishing just 470 votes behind her. The BC United-turned-Independent candidate, Tracy St. Claire, won 2,661 votes.听

While Acton may not believe his presence on the ballot in some way helped the NDP squeak out a provincial victory on Saturday, BC Conservative candidates unsurprisingly take a different view.听

Gavin Dew, who won an overwhelming victory for the party in sa国际传媒 Mission on Saturday, said: 鈥淚 think for听Independents who wanted to see the end of an NDP government, some of them may find themselves regretting the approach that they took, and regretting the impact that they had on shaping what government looks like moving forward.鈥

Speaking Monday morning on CKNW Radio's Mike Smyth Show, Rustad was asked if he'd made a mistake in not selecting Acton and Lee as BC Conservative candidates.听
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"Could we have done something different? Of course we could have done something different," he said.听
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But Rustad said he wanted to demonstrate loyalty to long-time members of the BC Conservatives and not simply replace existing party candidates with people who had been previously chosen to represent BC United.听
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And Rustad noted Independent candidates had not won a BC riding in many decades, suggesting those former BC United candidates like Acton and Lee who continued on their own in the election should have realized they faced long odds to victory.听
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For his part, Acton is already putting Saturdaysa国际传媒 election behind him. He had taken a leave of absence for the campaign, as per provincial regulations, but he went back to being the Mayor of Lumby on Monday morning.听

鈥淚鈥檝e got a council meeting to run tonight,鈥 he said.听

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