David Williams Elected Salmon Arm-Shuswap MLA

By Jo Anne Malpass

With 52.25% of the vote, BC Conservative Party David Williams was elected October 19 to represent Salmon Arm-Shuswap constituents in the BC Legislature.

David received 16,314 votes (3rd most votes for a candidate in the province), Sylvia Lindgren - BC NDP received 9,442, Greg McCune - Independent 2,886, Sherry Roy - Independent 371 and Jed Wiebe Green Party - 2,209.

David Williams, newly-elected MLA for Salmon Arm-Shuswap (photo contributed)

In the 93 electoral districts, there were only three other districts with more votes cast than the 31,222 in our local one. This riding had the most registered voters and one of the highest turnouts. There was a turn-out of 57.43% of registered voters across the provincial rate, up from 53.86% in our last provincial election.

David Williams said the results in his riding and across the province were much better than he and the Conservative party had anticipated, showing people wanted change.

David wanted to give his heartfelt thanks to all the people who supported him. “The first people I want to thank are all the people who went out and voted, all those who supported us right from the beginning to the end.” He also wanted to thank his spouse, who is also his financial agent, the local riding association and of course, all the dedicated volunteers. “It takes a team; it starts off with just yourself and then you build a team. And then as time goes on, it grows and grows.”

This riding is made up of a lot of communities, he said, and they all have unique issues. But there are some common issues as well, “affordability, housing, the high cost of living, health care is a big one, as well as crime.” “We will fight for positive results and oppose any policies that adversely affect our community. We will hold them to account and hopefully go back to polls sooner than later.”

Over the next few weeks, David will be going through a “big learning cure.” He will be having meetings with caucus, and newly elected Conservative MLAs will be working to hire staff and find space for constituency offices. He is looking for an office is that is accessible to the public, visible to the community and easy to get it and out of. He wants to be available to his constituents.

He can’t promise to have all the answers, but “people want honesty and transparency,” so he can promise they will always receive an honest answer from him. It takes a while to get up to speed, he said, but he will be out meeting with residents at more community functions as time goes on.