A handful of VIPs joined Liberal Norm Letnick at his campaign headquarters to watch election results come in and celebrate once he was declared the winner in Kelowna-Lake Country.

Former Kelowna Mayor Walter Gray was there, as was the man Letnick is replacing as MLA, Al Horning. City councillor Michelle Rule also made an appearance.

But perhaps the most important person of all was Letnick’s mother, Marie-Claire Letnick, who drove in yesterday from White Rock and was scheduled to leave again today because of a volunteer commitment she could not miss.

“He’s the golden boy of the family,” she said of her son, who is one of five children.

Asked what makes her son a good candidate for elected office, Marie-Claire replied, “His honesty.”

“He’s a workaholic and he’s very honest,” she added. “When he has something to tell you, he’ll tell you. He’s frank, a hard worker…and he believes he can help. He always wants to help.”

Letnick was declared the winner at about 9 p.m. when he was leading his closest rival, the NDPs Matthew Reed, by close to a two to one margin.

“I have to really thank the people of Kelowna-Lake Country for supporting us,” said Letnick.

He also had kind words for the candidates who ran against him.

“All the candidates and all their teams worked really hard,” he said. “To the people who voted for the other parties, I would like to thank them for coming out and voting…as the MLA-elect, I want you to know I’ll be working on behalf of every citizen of Kelowna-Lake Country very hard, to make sure that we all have better lives for ourselves and our children.”

Letnick said that the reelection of the B.C. Liberals to a third time would act as confidence booster in these troubled economic times.

“This is really a turning point…When was the last time we had 12 years of a pro-business government?” he asked, adding the four-year term the Liberals just won to the eight years they have already served.

“This will tell the business community that are here now and all the ones that were thinking of maybe moving here but were a little hesitant, to say, ‘OK, the people of British Columbia say they are open for business, are open for investment,’ and we should see that investment come in.”

adrian@kelownacapnews.com