Conservative incumbent Mel Arnold and his wife Linda celebrate his election win at Arnold's campaign office in Vernon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2019.

(BEN BULMER / iNFOnews.ca)

Conservative Party incumbent MP Mel Arnold has retained his seat in the North Okanagan-Shuswap riding.

With 254 of 286 polls reporting at press time, Arnold was ahead with 48.4 per cent of the vote compared to Cindy Derkaz with the Liberals with 22.2 per cent.

Arnold and his wife Linda celebrated the win with his supporters and his campaign office in Vernon.

Arnold told a scrum of reporters he felt "great" and he'd like to thank voters in the North Okanagan for putting their trust in him. He said he ran his campaign by listening to residents of the North Okanagan-Shuswap.

"(We) heard from all of the people right across this riding, and that's what I've done for the past four years," Arnold said. "And that's what I look forward to doing over the next four years."

Arnold wouldn't comment about the national results and wouldn't speculate about a minority government or coalition.

"Until we get a sense of who may be the prime minister we'll have to wait and see, and obviously it will be a lot of work across party lines," he said.

Arnold won the 2019 Federal Election North Okanagan-Shuswap seat by beating Liberal Party candidate Cinday Derkaz, NDP candidate Harwinder Sandhu, Green Party candidate Marc Reinarz and People's Party candidate Kyle Delfing.

A Salmon Arm resident and small business owner, Arnold's first entry into politics came with his 2015 federal election win. In the last four years in Ottawa, Arnold has served as the Deputy Critic for Fisheries, Oceans and Canadian Coast Guard. He's also the vice-chair of the BC and Yukon Conservative Caucus.

Arnold's win carries on a tradition of Tory MPs representing the riding. It has seen conservative governments in one shape or form for more than 25 years.

During Arnold's first term as a Member of Parliament, he has been a strong critic of the federal and provincial government's record on preventing aquatic invasive species from entering local waterways and has made repeated calls for more action to take place in the fight against aquatic invasive species.

Arnold sat on the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans which early this year released a report which asked for an exemption from the provincial government to allow rototilling to continue in the region's lakes as part of the fight against aquatic invasive species.

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