Abbotsford South

Abbotsford South

British Columbia electoral district
Location in the Lower Mainland
Provincial electoral district
Legislature	Legislative Assembly of British Columbia
MLA	Bruce Banman Conservative
District created	2008
First contested	2009
Last contested	2020
Demographics
Population (2006)	49,590
Area (km²)	211.10
Pop. density (per km²)	234.9
Census division(s)	Fraser Valley Regional District
Census subdivision(s)	Abbotsford

Abbotsford South is a provincial electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, established by the Electoral Districts Act, 2008. It came into effect in the 2009 provincial general election.

History

This riding has been represented by the following members of the Legislative Assembly:

Abbotsford South
Assembly	Years	Member		Party
Abbotsford-Clayburn prior to 2009
39th	2009–2012		John van Dongen	Liberal
	2012–2012			Conservative
	2012–2013			Independent
40th	2013–2017		Darryl Plecas	Liberal
41st	2017–2017
	2017–2020			Independent
42nd	2020–2023		Bruce Banman	Liberal
	2023–2023			United
	2023–present			Conservative

Member of the Legislative Assembly

On account of the realignment of electoral boundaries, most incumbents did not represent the entirety of their listed district during the preceding legislative term. John van Dongen, British Columbia Liberal Party was initially elected during a 1995 election to the Abbotsford-Clayburn riding and has represented them until 2013. He unsuccessfully ran for re-election in the newly created riding of Abbotsford South and lost to Darryl Plecas.

Starting in 2012, the riding has established a unique trend of MLAs switching political parties between elections, with John van Dongen, Darryl Plecas, and Bruce Banman all leaving the Liberal Party (now BC United) and either sitting as independents or joining the Conservative Party. Van Dongen lost re-election after leaving the Conservatives in turn, while Plecas did not stand for re-election.

Election results

2020 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Bruce Banman	9,730	44.69	−7.79	$44,289.90
	New Democratic	Inder Johal	7,706	35.39	+7.30	$729.55
	Green	Arid Flavelle	2,617	12.02	−2.98	$1,251.04
	Christian Heritage	Laura-Lynn Thompson	1,720	7.90	+3.67	$0.00
Total valid votes			21,773	100.00	–
Total rejected ballots			210	0.96	+0.18
Turnout			21,983	48.46	−6.25
Registered voters			45,365
Source: Elections BC

2017 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Darryl Plecas	11,683	52.48	+4.74	$64,989
	New Democratic	Jasleen Arora	6,297	28.29	+7.28	$2,892
	Green	William Aird Flavelle	3,338	15.00	–	$1,673
	Christian Heritage	Ron Gray	942	4.23	–	$686
Total valid votes			22,260	100.00
Total rejected ballots			174	0.78
Turnout			22,434	54.71
	Liberal hold		Swing		+5.08
Source: Elections BC

2013 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Darryl Plecas	9,564	47.74	−10.73
	Independent	John van Dongen	5,587	27.89	–30.58
	New Democratic	Lakhvinder Jhaj	4,210	21.01	–4.64
	Marijuana	Steve Finlay	417	2.08	–
	Excalibur	Patricia Smith	256	1.28	–
Total valid votes			20,032	100.00
Total rejected ballots			202	1.00
Turnout			20,234	55.77
	Liberal hold		Swing
Net change for van Dongen is in comparison to his 2009 vote percentage. Net change for Plecas is in comparison to the 2009 Liberal vote percentage; in other words the same basis as van Dongen.
Source: Elections BC

2009 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	John van Dongen	9,566	58.47
	New Democratic	Bonnie Rai	4,197	25.65
	Green	Daniel Bryce	1,244	7.61
	Conservative	Gurcharan Dhaliwal	1,019	6.23
	Independent	Tim Felger	334	2.04
Total valid votes			16,360	100.00
Total rejected ballots			205	1.25
Turnout			16,565	48.75
Registered voters			33,979
	Liberal hold		Swing
Source: Elections BC