Two former BC United candidates who decided to run independently in Richmond couldn’t beat the Conservative wave that swept up half the province.
Wendy Yuan ran as an independent in Richmond Centre and Jackie Lee in Richmond-Steveston.
Preliminary numbers show Yuan took 998 votes, 6.35 per cent, while Lee received 10.12 per cent of the vote in Steveston - 2,293 votes.
Both were running for the official opposition party, BC United, until the leader of the centre-right party Kevin Falcon folded the party’s campaign in late August and urged support for the BC Conservatives.
Yuan and Lee decided to run as independents when they weren’t chosen as the Conservative candidate.
The BC Conservatives favoured Michelle Mollineaux as their candidate in Richmond-Steveston, and Hon Chan in Richmond Centre.
Both Yuan and Lee had been campaigning and door-knocking for months as BC United candidates before Falcon's decision.
'This is not the result that we had hoped for': Yuan
Yuan rallied her followers at the end of voting day at a local restaurant, delivering an optimistic speech that looked towards the future. Many of her campaign volunteers were in tears listening to her, and they applauded her and expressed their gratitude.
“The result is here, and this is not a result that we had hoped for,” Yuan said, as she congratulated BC Conservative candidate Hon Chan on his decisive victory with 8,208 votes, or 52.23 per cent. Chan beat incumbent BC NDP MLA Henry Yao by more than 2,000 votes.
“Boy, we weren’t even close,” Yuan said.
Addressing the crowd, she said her supporters have all the reason to be proud of the campaign, and she thanked them for their effort and their time.
“Nobody ever said running as an independent is an easy task. We knocked on 13,000 doors, we also ID’d 6,000 votes, but today, the voters spoke, and I respected that.”
“The voters want change,” she added.
Despite her defeat, Yuan was optimistic for the future, thanking her supporters and everyone involved in her campaign, saying she would continue to work and fight for her community.
After the results came in, Lee said he has “full respect” for the voters’ choice, adding the campaign team tried their best.
He said he was “truly thankful for my campaign team, volunteers and family supporting me along the journey.”
- with files from Maria Rantanen
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