Following a turbulent election cycle, the dust has settled in Victoria, leaving a new MP and a new party representing the riding.
That MP is Will Greaves, the Liberal candidate who ousted NDP incumbent Laurel Collins with more than double the votes, ending the New Democratic Party's 20-year reign in the riding.
On the morning after the election (April 29), it's safe to say he was feeling good.
“I’m feeling excited. It’s a new chapter for me, and a new chapter for Victoria," he said.
Greaves stepped away from his associate professorship at the University of Victoria – where his research focused on climate change, security, and Arctic politics – to mount his campaign. While he had volunteered in past campaigns, this was Greaves’s first time with his name on a ballot.
“It’s definitely a different experience when it’s your name on the signs and you’re the front person for the whole project. It’s a daunting thing to take on – you’re carrying a lot of people’s hopes and expectations,” he said.
Walking away from election night, several moments struck Greaves as particularly meaningful, including the appearance of David Anderson, Victoria's last elected Liberal MP who served as minister of environment. Greaves said Anderson went above and beyond in supporting his campaign.
“To see him at the party last night, basking in the celebration as Victoria elected its first Liberals since he left office was a really special moment, and one that I was sincerely touched by.”
As he prepares to head for Parliament Hill, Greaves outlined pressing priorities, mentioning the mounting tensions with the United States and President Donald Trump's trade war.
“Those are big-picture questions that I think the government has an obligation to address promptly, and which, given some of my professional background and experience, I might be able to contribute to,” he said.
More locally, Greaves' priorities are around issues of housing and affordability, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and particular sectors of the Island's economy – the forestry and fishery sectors – that are exposed to economic harm from tariffs, he said.
“Those are all issues we heard a lot about over the last five weeks and that I have taken to heart as the priorities that my constituents expect of me.”
For Greaves and the Liberal Party, this election cycle has been a whirlwind. He captured 54.3 per cent of the vote in a riding that’s been an NDP stronghold, finishing with 41,100 votes, ahead of Collins' 18,864, and the 12,868 picked up by Conservative Angus Ross. The Green's Michael Doherty finished with 2,331.
“I really wanted to give voters in Victoria who consider themselves progressive – and with whom I share many values – an opportunity to vote for a progressive candidate who had a chance of being part of a federal progressive government. That was my motivation,” Greaves said.
Greaves said a lot of people deserve credit for his election night victory, none more so than his campaign manager Naomi Devine.
“[She] played such a critical role in our campaign and success. She’s a really experienced campaigner and political strategist here on the Island,” he said. “So, wanting to acknowledge her but failing to do so in the moment has been eating at me.”
Greaves was elated to see Liberal peers, such as Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke candidate Stephanie McLean, appear at the party, not as supporters, but as fellow newly elected MPs.
“It was an exciting moment to celebrate with her and know that there would be two of us in government able to represent our community."
