Kootenay—Columbia, BC — 2015 Federal Election Results Map
Kootenay—Columbia — 2015 Election Results
📌 The Canadian federal electoral district of Kootenay—Columbia was contested in the 2015 election.
🏆 Wayne Stetski, the NDP-New Democratic Party candidate, won the riding with 23,529 votes (37.2% of the vote).
🥈 The runner-up was David Wilks (Conservative) with 23,247 votes (36.8%), defeated by a margin of 282 votes.
📊 Other notable candidates: Don Johnston (Liberal, 19%) and Bill Green (Green Party, 7%).
Riding information
Auto generated. Flag an issue.Kootenay—Columbia
Kootenay—Columbia spans the southeastern corner of British Columbia, stretching from the Rocky Mountains along the Alberta border westward through the Purcell and Selkirk ranges to include the communities of Nelson, Kaslo, and Salmo. The riding takes in the Columbia Valley, the Elk Valley, and the East Kootenay region, covering an area of dramatic mountain scenery, river valleys, and alpine passes.
Candidates
Wayne Stetski (NDP) — A Cranbrook resident since 1990, Stetski brought a 35-year career in parks and conservation to the campaign. He had worked for Parks Canada, BC Parks, and the BC Ministry of Environment across the Kootenays, and later served as manager of the East Kootenay Conservation Program. He was also a former mayor of Cranbrook.
David Wilks (Conservative) — The incumbent MP elected in 2011, Wilks was a former RCMP officer who served at detachments across British Columbia from 1980 to 2000. He later entered municipal politics as a councillor and then mayor of Sparwood before winning the federal seat.
Don Johnston (Liberal) — A Nelson-area resident, Johnston was a former chief executive officer of the Columbia Basin Trust.
Bill Green (Green Party) — Green was the founding executive director of the Canadian Columbia River Inter-tribal Fisheries Commission, established by the Ktunaxa and Secwepemc Nations to protect aquatic ecosystems and restore salmon to their historic range in the Columbia and Kootenay river systems.
About the Riding
The riding’s economy is built on resource industries, tourism, and recreation. Coal mining in the Elk Valley around Fernie and Sparwood, forestry throughout the region, and a growing tourism sector anchored by ski resorts such as Fernie Alpine Resort and Panorama Mountain Resort are major employers. Cranbrook, the largest city in the East Kootenay with a population of roughly 20,000, serves as the regional service centre. The Columbia Basin Trust, created to share benefits from the Columbia River Treaty dams, is a significant institution in the area. Environmental stewardship, resource management, rural healthcare access, and the future of the Columbia River Treaty—up for review—were prominent issues in 2015. The riding had been held by the Reform Party and then the Conservatives since 1993, and prior to that by the NDP.
