The political bug has bitten Nathan Giede.
After picking up over five per cent of the vote as a Conservative candidate in Tuesday's provincial election, the 23-year-old from Prince George is already musing about his next political adventure.
"I'm very interested in getting into municipal politics," he said. "People have approached me and said, 'I think you have a future here, you obviously care about the riding and I feel like you were listening to the voters.' "
Giede, who was working on an advertising budget of just $1,000, picked up 987 votes in Prince George-Valemount. He placed third behind Liberal Shirley Bond (10,163 votes) and New Democrat Sherry Ogasawara (6,194). Christian Heritage candidate Donald Roberts was fourth with 276 votes.
Provincially, the Conservatives failed to win a seat but did score a second-place finish in Peace River South.
"I was hoping that we would get at least one seat," Giede said. "We need to rebuild, we need to refocus."
Across town, Green candidate Karen McDowell had 933 votes in Prince George-Mackenzie to finish third in her race - but has reason for optimism as Andrew Weaver won the party's first provincial seat in Oak Bay-Gordon Head.
"That was a pretty big breakthrough," McDowell said. "It's going to give us the experience that we need to put together a concrete fiscal plan."
Mike Morris won the Prince George-Mackenzie seat with 9,930 votes. He was followed by Bobby Deepak of the NDP with 5,865. Terry Rysz of the Conservatives was fourth with 755 votes.
McDowell said her vote total is consistent with what Green candidates have done in the past in Prince George, but with Weaver in office she expects the party will be able to build more momentum by the next election.
McDowell plans to lobby Morris, Weaver and other representatives to encourage some form of proportional representation. She's yet to decide if she'll make another run for public office in the future.
"I certainly got a lot of experience running this campaign," she said. "I may run again provincially and I'm still debating with what to do with the [2015] federal election."
Despite predictions for close races, both Liberal candidates scored mammoth wins. In Bond's case, she managed to pick up 57 per cent of the popular vote in Prince George-Valemount - her largest share of votes of any of her four provincial election wins.
Bond said she knew she was up against a tough field and had to work hard for the win.
"I want to congratulate my competitors, it was a very interesting field," she said. "There was a very young candidate in Nathan Giede, I'm sure we're going to see him again in the future. Don Roberts is a regular competitor and he cares about things passionately. Sherry did a great job for a new candidate - she was articulate and I think we always found a way to be professional with one another."
Giede said he wasn't surprised that the Liberals formed government again, but took a parting shot at Bond.
"Four more years of cabinet minister Bond is four more years of contradiction, four more years of debt and it's four more years of photo ops that don't actually add up," he said. "Four more years of good-looking Facebook and Twitter updates, without a lot of substance."
