Kamloops South Thompson Liberal candidate Todd Stone and daughter Sydney watch the results come in.

(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)

Despite many early predictions the NDP would take Kamloops ridings, Liberal candidate Todd Stone has been elected the next MLA of Kamloops South Thompson as the bellwether status of the city stands.

Stone was declared the winner fairly early in the night and by the time all but one of the ballot boxes were counted he had pulled in 58 per cent of the votes. NDP Tom Friedman took 35 per cent while Conservative Peter Sharp garnered six per cent. Indpendent Brian Alexander pulled in 1.6 per cent of the vote.

Sharp, who came to Hotel 540 playing the bagpipes as he conceded, says he is happy with how Stone played and while he ran to win he is pleased Stone won and not the NDP. Most importantly, Sharp says, is the vote was not split.

Stone says he feels “humbled, that the people of South Thompson entrusted me with the job of MLA for the next four years, it's a big responsibility, one I'm not going to take lightly.”

Though there were questions over whether the Liberals could pull a win out of either Kamloops riding Stone says the results echo what he has been saying for months already.

“The feeling I'm getting on the doorstep hasn't been jiving at all with these polls. Our team resolved to work hard, we knocked on thousands of doors.”

Nearly 400 volunteers have helped Stone during the campaign and among those were his wife Chantelle. She says she is very excited for her husband and their three daughters Hannah, Sydney and Caitlin have stood beside Stone through the entire process.

“The girls are at a perfect age, they say daddy's famous, but they don't understand the other part of it,” she says, noting they are all know today is an exciting day for dad.

The NDP party at St Andrews on the Square was quiet in comparison and Friedman and his family were only set to show up after the results.

After of 152 ballot box counts tallied of 23,353 votes puts 2013 about 1,460 votes above the 2009 election.  Final voting results will be available after the final count on May 27.

- Brian Alexander, Indpendent - 377 votes, 1.61%

- Tom Friedman, B.C. NDP - 8,095 votes, 34.66%

- Peter Sharp, B.C. Conservative Party - 1,442 votes, 6.17%

- Todd Stone, B.C. Liberals Party - 13,439 votes, 57.55%

To contact a reporter for this story, email jstahn@infotelnews.ca or call (250) 819-3723.

Conservative Peter Sharp plays the bagpipes for Liberal Todd Stone as he comes to congratulate him on his win.

(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)