Photo: Contributed Scott Anderson is elected to Vernon-Lake Country-Monashee seat. UPDATE 9:25 p.m. Vernon-Lake Country-Monashee MP-elect Scott Anderson says he will do his best to represent the riding. Anderson told Castanet he's very humbled by the amount of support he received. Ballot boxes are still being counted but Anderson has 51.47 per cent of the vote with Liberal candidate Anna Warwick Sears trailing behind with 40.7 per cent. Up-to-the-minute local results can be found here. UPDATE 8:51 p.m. Vernon-Lake Country-Monashee has elected Conservative candidate Scott Anderson. Earlier this evening Anderson's campaign party told Castanet reporters would not be allowed into his election night viewing until after official results came in. Castanet has a reporter heading back to the party now to get comment from Anderson. Liberal candidate Anna Warwick Sears said she'd like to wait to comment. Up-to-the-minute local results can be found here. UPDATE 7:29 p.m. Ballot boxes are being counted in Vernon-Lake Country-Monashee and early numbers show Conservative candidate Scott Anderson in the lead. So far three of 239 polls are being reported so there’s still a long way to go. Across the country the Liberals are being projected to once again form federal government. ORIGINAL 4:30 p.m. Polls for the federal election close at 7 p.m. tonight and four candidates are vying for a spot in Ottawa. New electoral boundaries have split Vernon from the Shuswap leaving the Vernon-Lake Country-Monashee riding wide open. The area has long been held by the Tories, but the country's four major parties all have candidates on the ballot. This story will be updated with results as they come in. Scott Anderson Anderson is a businessman who served on Vernon city council for two terms before making an unsuccessful bid for mayor in 2022, losing to Victor Cumming. He holds a degree in international relations and served with the Canadian Armed Forces in the public affairs branch. He’s long been involved with Tory politics being the interim leader of the BC Conservative Party and involved in the local riding association since 2014. “We've been held back by a decade – in the military during the Chrétien government, we used to call it the lost decade, and I think we're coming out of another lost decade economically right now,” said Anderson. “The conservatives have plans to move forward, to unleash the potential of Canadians.” Anna Warwick Sears Warwick Sears spent 19 years as the executive director of the Okanagan Basin Water Board before stepping down earlier this year. She holds a PhD in population biology and the OBWB position had her working with various government agencies. Warwick Sears ran for the provincial NDP this past fall in the Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream riding and was beaten by BC Conservative candidate Tara Armstrong. “I feel like more than anything, I'm running for Canada. I have my elbows up. I'm standing on guard full stop, and I want everyone to join me,” said Warwick Sears. “I want us to show a united front and come together and work together to a new era.” Blair Visscher Visscher is a former social studies teacher currently working towards her masters in sustainability at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. She works with the research group Living with wildfires in the Okanagan and has spent the last year working as the CEO of the local Green Party riding association. “I will represent you authentically as an accessible person, as opposed to a career politician, you should vote for me because it's a vote for hope and for the future, as opposed to a vote for fear,” said Visscher. Leah Main Main has been a Village of Silverton councillor since 2009 and worked as a director for the Regional District of Central Kootenay since 2011. In her positions she’s worked with various levels of government. Main was elected as a director for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and served from 2015 to 2024. “I have the ability to listen to people and to take what they tell me and bring it to position and policy discussions,” said Main. I have experience working locally, provincially, territorially and federally, and I think that those are valuable experiences to bring to the table when you elect me as your next MP. The riding originally had two more candidates who both withdrew before Election Canada’s confirmation deadline. Korry Zepick, an independent, dropped out to avoid a vote-split and threw his support behind liberal candidate, Warwick Sears, while People’s Party of Canada candidate Arsh Dhillon's reasons for withdrawing remain unknown.