MP Richard Cannings is hugged by a supporter after pulling out a close victory against Conservative Helena Konanz.

(STEVE ARSTAD / iNFOnews.ca)

The riding of South Okanagan-West Kootenay has gone orange again with another NDP victory in today’s federal election.

Incumbent Richard Cannings is expected to be re-elected MP in the riding. At press time, he was ahead of Conservative candidate Helena Konanz by nearly 2,000 votes with nearly 70 per cent of votes counted. Cannings had 38 per cent of the vote while Konanz has fallen behind with 32.5 per cent.

Cannings commented on the tight race, admitting he had butterflies in his stomach this afternoon. He said he thought the NDP leader's 11th-hour visit to the riding might have helped him turn the tide. 

"This last visit was something we found out about a couple of days before, and so obviously we were very pleased he decided to do that," Cannings said.

Cannings said he ran on his record as MP for the last four years.

"I think people liked what I did, and how I represented this riding, and we ran a very positive campaign about what the NDP was offering Canadians and our commitments like affordable housing and the environment, and I think that resonated with people, obviously enough to take this to the top," he said

The South Okanagan-West Kootenay riding was expected to be a close contest between the incumbent and Conservative candidate Helena Konanz, who has been campaigning almost non-stop since winning her party’s nomination last year.

But she failed to overtake Canning’s popularity in a relatively new riding made of former areas that traditionally elected NDP or Conservative candidates.

Cannings, 66, is a well known biologist and author of a dozen books about B.C. topics. He spent 17 years at University of British Columbia before moving back to the Okanagan in 1995 to run his own consulting company.

For more on this year's federal election, click this link.

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