For Shirley Bond, it's a fifth consecutive victory. While it leaves her one win behind Ray Williston, she'll pass him in years in office by one year by the time the next election comes around in 2021. Prince George-Valemount is her turf. She could run as an independent and still win.
For Mike Morris, it's a win on his own terms, rather than as the emergency substitute for incumbent Pat Bell, who stepped aside just two-and-a-half months before the 2013 election for health reasons. His calm, steady demeanor speaks to the constituents of Prince George-Mackenzie.
Same goes for John Rustad in Nechako Lakes while Coralee Oakes in Cariboo North as bubbly and energetic as Christy Clark. That still sells in Quesnel but it's not working so great in places like Coquitlam and Comox.
While area voters sure love their Liberals, Tuesday night showed how out of touch the region's residents are from the people of the Lower Mainland. Clark's cheerful energy and firm resolve are still selling points in the middle of the province but the best-before date has long past in Greater Vancouver.
In the Prince George area, voters saw four more years of balanced budgets, economic stability, job growth, resource development and free enterprise.
In the Vancouver area, voters saw four more years of sticking it to teachers, shortchanging colleges and universities, collecting cash from rich party donors, running up the provincial debt while "balancing the budget," building the Site C dam against the opposition of area First Nations and ignoring the poor, the mentally ill and children in care.
Regardless of how the final numbers turn out, Clark is a lame-duck leader with one foot in the political grave. She will be nowhere to be found four years from now. Horgan, meanwhile, will be back in 2021, either seeking a second term as premier or looking for the last little push over the top.
In 2013, the NDP squandered their lead over the Liberals because voters preferred the upbeat Clark to the flat professorial personality of Adrian Dix. Voters were ready to give the NDP a try but just couldn't get behind Dix.
Four years later, the NDP had a far better leader in John Horgan and a public losing patience with Clark.
However the final outcome plays out, one thing is clear: All three political parties will have to work with each other to get legislation passed. On the one hand, it creates a ton of uncertainty for everything from the Site C dam to the Kinder Morgan pipeline. On the other, it will force the parties and their leaders to put their partisan posing aside to get anything done.
And God help us if a byelection is needed and that single result is enough to change the party in power.
