John Rustad had at least two reasons to start celebrating early Tuesday night.
He won his Nechako Lakes riding and his Liberal party retained its role as the governing party with a remarkable comeback from polls that predicted its demise.
Rustad led from start to finish in a convincing run to his third term as an MLA., defeating NDP candidate Sussanne Skidmore-Hewlett, a Prince George court clerk, by more than a 2-1 margin.
With 66 of 85 polls counted, Rustad had 3,918 votes for a 54 per cent share, while Skidmore-Hewlett had 1,847 votes for a 26 per cent share.
"I'm very happy. Elections are a very humbling process and you do the best you can as an incumbent, trying to deliver what you hope will be in the best interests of the people of your riding," said Rustad, from his campaign headquarters in Vanderhoof.
Rustad's background as a forestry consultant specializing in geographic information systems has served him well in politics. Heading into the election, Rustad served as parliamentary secretary for forestry in the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources.
"There's a tremendous amount of work that needs to be done in this riding and my priority going forward here is certainly the mid-term timber supply from the pine beetle epidemic," Rustad said. "We need to continue to move forward with our forestry policy. That's the big one.
"We have the budget put in place so now we have to fully implement the recommendations and move forward with working with the companies and communities to make sure we have the timber supply we need to keep our mills healthy. It's critical that we solve this."
Rustad said his work on securing the timber supply in Nechako Lakes, which helped clear the way for the rebuild of Babine Forest Products sawmill in Burns Lake, helped sway voters, as did the government's commitment to health care with the announcement of a new hospital in Burns Lake.
Conservative Dan Brooks finished third, followed by Green Party candidate Colin Hamm, and Beverly Bird, the Advocational International Democratic Party of B.C. candidate.
Rustad was obviously elated at the overall results, which put the Liberals back in power with a majority government.
"There wasn't a single poll or a single pundit in the province that predicted a B.C. Liberal win, this was the third election in a row where the pollsters have been wrong," Rustad said. "I think the pollsters will have to start thinking about their methodology. It's great to see. Our premier, Christy [Clark] worked very hard and was all over the province and a lot of credit goes to her for turning this around.
"I think people warmed up to the message that we want to see a strong economy and see our debt eliminated over time and a secure future."
Rustad was especially pleased that both Liberal candidates in Prince George, Shirley Bond in Prince George-Valemount and Mike Morris in Prince George-Mackenzie, rolled to victory Tuesday.
"We've delivered on a lot of things for the north and it looks like we might pick up a seat or two in the North," said Rustad. "We have some tremendous economic opportunities in front of us in northern B.C."
Nechako Lakes includes Vanderhoof, Fort St. James, Burns Lake and Houston and is one of the largest geographic ridings in the province.
Rustad, 49, regained his MLA seat in 2009 with a 55.8 per cent majority. Rustad was first elected in 2005, after serving one term in municipal politics as a School District 57 trustee. He lives at Cluculz Lake with his wife Kim. He plans to take a week off to travel to the Okanagan and the Kootenays for a holiday.
