In 1997 federal Liberal Phil Boname did well against veteran politician John Reynolds and in 2000 Ian McKay dropped the ball for the Liberal Party of Canada.
In 2004, young Blair Wilson almost brought down the giant.
Heads turned as the results started to roll across television screens across Canada as the returns showed a seesaw battle between first-time campaigner Blair Wilson and veteran politician John Reynolds.
Late on election night, Wilson gave an address to his supporters gathered at the Liberal campaign office in West Vancouver after at least one television network projected a Wilson victory. BCTV Global carried the speech live. Wilson thanked his support team and in light of how close the numbers he didn't claim victory.
Once all the polls reported the excitement in the Wilson camp faded because the final tally indicated 21,372 votes for the Conservative Party of Canada candidate and 19,685 for the Liberal.
Wilson said on Tuesday (June 29) in an interview with The Chief that he was well-supported in Squamish, Whistler and Bowen Island.
"We said this was going to be within 100 votes," said the rookie campaigner. "We didn't expect to win West Vancouver. We had plans to basically tie in West Van and win it in the outlying areas. We won the outlying areas with the exception of Powell River and some of the larger polls on the Sunshine Coast that went NDP. There's a direct coalition with the [Liberal] team in those areas."
Wilson wouldn't say directly if he intends to run in the next election but he did say that he plans to stay in the riding and continue to build on the foundation established through the campaign.
"Martin could govern for the next four years," Wilson said. "It [the minority government] could last a lot longer than people think."
Wilson said he had fun and he and his volunteer team made some lifelong friendships through the campaign.
