After receiving more votes than any other B.C. Green Party candidate in recent in history, Yvonne Prest said she would consider running again.
“Absolutely, one-hundred per cent,” she said on election night at Fernie’s Valley Social, her unofficial campaign headquarters.
The 31-year-old secondary school teacher received 1,814 votes, or about 11 per cent of the total.
She got more than three times the 549 votes received by Jennifer Tsuida, who was the last Green candidate to campaign in Kootenay East in 2009.
“I feel completely motivated,” she said. “It makes me feel that we have a group in this area that wants to do better.”
Though proud of her party’s performance, Yvonne announced her candidacy several weeks after her opponents launched their campaigns when she saw that there was no candidate running for Kootenay East. She said next time around she’d be starting earlier.
“I assumed somebody else would (run),” she said. “The thought of me running didn’t enter my mind until I saw nobody else was.”
Yvonne’s father Bob Prest traveled from his home in Victoria to be with his daughter on election night and said he was proud of her accomplishments.
“She took up the challenge,” he said. “I was quite surprised but very proud at her courage to do that.”
The Greens are celebrating a historic win that has landed them three seats in the B.C. Legislature.
The party doubled its share of the popular vote across the province to 16.7 per cent. Emerging data from Elections BC shows that a lot of those votes came from British Columbians that had previously voted for the Liberals, as well as new voters.
“It’s clear that British Columbians voted for change on a wide range of issues, and we are delighted to have had such a strong, principled candidate in Yvonne running with the B.C. Greens in Kootenay-East,” said Jillian Oliver, press secretary for the party, in a statement. “We are thrilled that she had such a positive experience over the course of the campaign and look forward to working more with her in the future.”
“With an earlier start, we think she could make an even stronger performance next time.”