The nominations are in, and four candidates will be vying for Delta residents' votes on April 28.
Candidate nominations with Elections Canada closed Monday (April 7) at 2 p.m., and a quartet of hopefuls all have their eyes on Delta’s seat in Parliament.
The riding is without an incumbent candidate as former Liberal MP Carla Qualtrough, who has represented Delta in Parliament since 2015, announced last October she would not be seeking a fourth term in office.
Looking to take her place are Jessy Sahota with the Conservative Party, Jill McKight with the Liberal Party, Natasa Sirotic with the People's Party of Canada, and Jason McCormick with the NDP. A fifth candidate, Nick Dickinson-Wilde, was to run in Delta under the Green Party banner, but was unable to collect the required number of signatures before the nomination deadline.
Voters will get two chances to hear directly from the candidates hoping to represent them in Parliament, with all-candidates meetings planned for the evening of Wednesday, April 16 at the North Delta Centre for the Arts (1425 84th Ave.), and the afternoon of Monday, April 21 at Northside Community Church (11300 84th Ave.).
Created in 2013 from parts of the former ridings of Newton-North Delta and Delta-Richmond East, the Delta riding includes all of the city of Delta and Tsawwassen First Nation.
This election, “Delta” includes a small portion of Surrey as the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for British Columbia adjusted the riding’s borders in 2023 to enclose the area from 64 Street south to the British Columbia Railway adjacent to Colebrook Road, and from 120 Street east to 126 Street above 58 Avenue, to 128 Street between 58 and 56 avenues, and to 125A Street/Station Road from 56 to the rail line.
All told, the newly redefined riding has an area of around 190 square kilometres and a population of 117,734 based on 2021 census data, of which Elections Canada estimates 82,897 are registered voters.
Qualtrough was the Liberal candidate in all three previous elections since the riding was created, garnering more than 41 per cent of the vote each time (49.1 per cent in 2015, 41.2 per cent in 2019, and 42.3 per cent in 2021).
The Conservative and NDP shares of the vote have remained fairly consistent as well, though both the Conservatives and NDP have made small gains each of the last three elections. Conservative candidates garnered 32.8, 33 and 33.8 per cent of the vote in 2015, 2019 and 2021, respectively, while NDP candidates won 14.9, 16.3 and 18.3 per cent.
The Green party’s share of the vote in Delta was 3.2 per cent in 2015, hit a high of 6.3 per cent in 2019 before dropping to 2.4 per cent in 2021. There will not be a Green candidate on the ballot in 2025.
Meanwhile, the People’s Party of Canada candidate won 1.8 per cent of the vote in 2019 (the first election since the party was founded in 2018), climbing to 2.5 per cent in 2021.
Independent candidates have consistently pulled between 379 and 398 votes each, equal to around 0.7 per cent. No independent candidates are on the ballot this election.
Voter turnout in Delta has dropped in each of the two elections after 2015. That year, there were 75,044 registered voters in the riding and 55,889 cast a ballot, for a turnout of 74.5 per cent. That fell to 70.4 per cent in 2019 (54,337 of 77,216 registered voters cast ballots) and 67.2 per cent in 2021 (52,605 of 78,282 registered voters cast ballots).
Election day is Monday, April 28, with polls open for 12 hours (7 a.m. to 7 p.m.). Advanced voting is available from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, April 18 through Monday, April 21.
To find your polling station, check your voter information card or use Elections Canada’s online Voter Information Service.
For more information, or to register to vote, visit elections.ca.
