Liberals stage comeback to win in Canada's British Columbia: networks

By Jennifer Kwan

VICTORIA, British Columbia (Reuters) - The incumbent Liberal Party won a handsome majority in the election in the Canadian Pacific province of British Columbia on Tuesday, news networks predicted, defying the pollsters who had expected voters to boot the party out of power.

The Liberals, in power for more than a decade, lost support after the introduction, and then cancellation, of an unpopular sales tax. But the party gained momentum late in an election campaign that focused on the economy, balanced budgets and controlled spending.

The majority government was predicted by networks Global News and CTV News.

Analysts characterized the victory as shocking and a miracle because the Liberals had trailed the left-leaning New Democrats by some 20 percentage points heading into the campaign.

Provisional returns at around 10 p.m. Pacific Time (1 a.m. EDT Wednesday) showed the Liberals had won, or were slightly ahead, in 50 of the 85 seats in the provincial legislature, while the NDP were heading for 33 seats. Forty-three seats are needed for a majority.

Premier Christy Clark was in a tight race with the NDP challenger for her seat and the winner had yet to be decided.

The Liberals held 45 seats in the previous legislature, the NDP had 36, and four were held by independents.

The key turning point in the campaign seemed to be Clark's ability to play up fears that the New Democrats would be poor stewards of Canada's fourth-largest provincial economy.

NDP leader Adrian Dix opposed both the proposed C$6 billion ($6 billion) Enbridge Inc Northern Gateway pipeline that would ship 525,000 barrels of oil sands crude per day from Alberta to the B.C. coast, and Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP's plan to more than double the size of its Trans Mountain pipeline carrying crude oil from Edmonton, Alberta, to the coast.

Dix had promised to revoke an agreement the Liberals had signed under which British Columbia would recognize whatever federal decision is taken after a federal environmental review of the Northern Gateway pipeline, due at the end of this year.

British Columbia, which includes large parts of the Canadian Rockies as well as the rugged and often undeveloped Pacific coast, prides itself on its environmental policies. Greenpeace was founded here in 1971.

Green Party candidate Andrew Weaver won the party's first seat in a provincial legislature in Canada.

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/liberals-stage-comeback-win-canadas-british-columbia-networks-052312346.html

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