Dalton holds onto his seat in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows

Despite the Conservative Party’s failure to depose the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau in the election of 2021, Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge MP Marc Dalton doesn’t want a change of leadership at this time.

Dalton said the party is a coalition that needs to “pull together and keep focussed, and not turn our guns inward.”

“Right now we’re focussed on massive debt spending, and there’s a lot happening nationally,” said Dalton.

The Liberal government called a snap federal election for the fall of 2021, but from the perspective of voters in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows, nothing changed.

Conservative incumbent Dalton held onto his seat, finishing with 19,371 votes, which was 36.6 per cent of those cast in the riding of Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge.

Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who had been hoping for a majority government after the Sept. 20 plebiscite, was returned to Parliament with a minority.

“I’m very happy to have held my seat, but disappointed the Conservative Party could not form government,” said Dalton.

Second in the Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge riding was the NDP’s Phil Klapwyk, a newcomer to the political scene, with 16,869, for 31.9 per cent. He gave the party its best showing in the riding since the 2011 federal election, when the party received just shy of 35 per cent of the vote.

Third was Maple Ridge city councillor and Liberal Party candidate Ahmed Yousef with 13,179 and 24.9 per cent.

The People’s Party’s Juliuss Hoffman received 2,890 votes, for 5.5 per cent; independent Steve Ranta had 453 votes for 0.9 per cent and Rhinoceros Party candidate Peter Buddle had 161 votes for 0.3 per cent.

The population of the riding is 101,101, with 82,495 registered electors before election day. So with 52,923 votes cast the local voter turnout was 64 per cent.

Little changed from the October 2019 election when Dalton was first elected federally. Trudeau won a third term as prime minister, and another minority government. The Liberals needed 170 seats to form government alone, but took just 160 – just five more than the previous election

The Conservative Party under Erin O’Toole lost two seats from 2019, but formed official opposition. The Bloc Quebecois took 32 seats, the NDP 25 and the Green Party two.

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Dalton pointed out that while the Conservatives would have liked to have won the election, under O’Toole they they did capture the popular vote with 33.7 per cent compared with the Liberal’s 32.6 per cent. That despite many polls putting the Conservatives behind before election day.

Dalton ran for the position of Speaker of Parliament. In his speech for the position, Dalton spoke about his Metis heritage, and membership in the Golden Ears Metis Society.

”My Indigenous ancestry is deeply meaningful to me,” he said. “This has been a year of grieving for Indigenous peoples as we become more aware of the abuses of the Indian residential schools,” he said. “I have aunts and uncles who attended these schools as day students.

“As speaker I would seek ways to honour our Indigenous peoples and look for opportunities to advance reconciliation within Parliament.”

Anthony Rota was chosen speaker in November.

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