Riding a tide of New Democratic support across Canada, Peter Julian won the Burnaby-New Westminster riding for the third-straight time by the largest margin ever.

With all polls reported, Julian finished far ahead of second-place Conservative Sam Rakhra with 20,145 votes (46.5 per cent). Rahkra, who did not attend any of the public all-candidates meetings, earned 13,151 votes (30 per cent) while Liberal Gerry Lenoski picked up 6,681 votes (15.5 per cent). Green candidate Carrie McLaren had a surprising result with 3,056 votes (seven per cent).

Julian first won the seat in 2004 with 34.58 per cent of the popular vote and then in 2006 with a larger 38.79 per cent of the vote.

Campaign organizer Paul McDonell credited Julian's work on behalf of the riding for his re-election.

"All I can put it down to is Peter. He works so hard in this riding. He's one of the hardest working MPs in Ottawa and when he gets home he doesn't take any time off, he's out there all the time," he said.

"Peter is very committed. It makes it easy really to run a campaign when you've got a candidate that everyone likes."

But Rakhra's results were surprising, and McDonell credited it to the Conservatives national profile.

His result was the best ever for a Conservative candidate since the riding's creation in 2003. Previously, candidates finished third in the 2004 and 2006 elections.

The NDP became a valid choice for Canadians in this election, said Julian, who credited the strength of national leader Jack Layton for the party's best showing since 1988, when Ed Broadbent led them to 43 seats. The NDP finished with 37 Tuesday night.

Conservative leader Stephen Harper was hoping to win a majority when he called the election, Julian told a crowd of supporters during his victory speech at the Fire Fighters Club in Burnaby.

"But we stopped him cold in Western Canada."

That said, the Tories picked up four seats in B.C. this time around, finishing with 22 of the 36 seats. NDP won nine, including Burnaby-Douglas and Vancouver-Kingsway, and the Liberals won five.

Nationally, the NDP's increased seats appeared to come at the expense of the Liberals, who lost 25 seats across the country.

"Tonight we saw the emergence of a truly national New Democratic Party," Julian told the crowd Tuesday night. "We have seats from St. John's, Newfoundland to Vancouver Island, from the Northwest Territories to Windsor, Ontario.

"What that means is we've established ourselves very clearly as an alternative to the old school parties."

mmcquillan@newwestnewsleader.com