Kevin MILLS and Alex BUTLER
That’s the word most people are using on Wednesday morning as the results from last night’s provincial election begins to sink in.
Despite all the polls that indicated an NDP government was inevitable, the Liberal party won a majority to return to power.
In Abbotsford, all three ridings went to the Liberals.
Hamish Telford, head of the political science department at the University of the Fraser Valley, said his predictions for the election changed as the campaigns went on.
Though the Abbotsford ridings went Liberal, at the beginning of the campaign, Telford wasn’t sure the region would hold onto its reputation as a Liberal stronghold.
“They were all quite unique and somewhat difficult to predict at the beginning of the campaign, but the strong performance by Christy Clark sort of sealed the deal and made Liberal victories almost inevitable at the end.”
Telford said at first he thought John van Dongen could hold on as an independent in Abbotsford South, and that Mike de Jong faced a greater challenge than he did in Abbotsford West. But by the end, Telford said it had become more clear that the Fraser Valley could go Liberal in all ridings.
Telford said van Dongen ran a strong campaign, and had a good chance due to his experience as an MLA and his contacts among voters, but Plecas managed to take the seat.
“I think that’s a credit to Darryl Plecas, who waged a very good campaign for a rookie.”
Telford added that Plecas’s campaign was aided by the “exceptionally strong” campaign of Clark. Plecas also credited much of his support to the Indo-Canadian community.
Telford agreed that any candidate in Abbotsford has to gain support in the South Asian community.
“The NDP tried. All three Abbotsford candidates were of Indo-Canadian descent, but that obviously wasn’t enough to make the connections necessary to get the vote out.”
Telford said he was surprised that the issue of the Kinder-Morgan pipeline didn’t factor more heavily into the Abbotsford results, saying he thought Adrian Dix’s opposition to the pipeline was an effort to appeal to Fraser Valley voters.
“I didn’t get a sense that people were enthusiastic about a pipeline expansion through our community, but maybe that was not the deciding factor in people's minds at the end of the day.
Telford said at the end of the day, the NDP were perhaps too ambitious in their push for seats in the Fraser Valley, and could not compete against the Liberal support.
“But by the end of the campaign it was quite clear to me that Christy Clark had firmly positioned the Liberal party as the only viable party of the centre-right.”
For many business people, the Liberal sweep comes as a pleasant relief.
“We are just as surprised as the rest of the province is,” said Allan Asaph, executive director of the Abbotsford Chamber of Commerce.
“I think there was a lot of undecided voters who, when it finally came time to actually come out and vote, decided that when 
it came to who is in the best position to manage the finances of the province and could move the economy forward, it was the Liberals.”
He also speculated that when polling was conducted during the campaign, many people may not have wanted to say they supported the Liberals.
“But when push came to shove, they are the ones that showed up at the polling stations.”
Asaph was not surprised by the Abbotsford results, saying he expected, if not totally Liberal, the area would be significantly Liberal.
He said the advantage now is that Abbotsford will not find itself going back to where it had been years ago, the “lone bastion of free enterprise in the Fraser Valley, with a non-free enterprise party in Victoria.”
He said the fear was the area would have Liberal MLAs and an NDP government, which may have “shut us out” from any provincial consideration.
He said Abbotsford is now a Liberal “stronghold.”
“We are a voice to 
be reckoned with.”
Local businessman Jati Sidhu said the election was “history-making,” and that whenever people discuss election issues in the future, this result will “pop up” in conversation.
He said he expected maybe two out of the three Abbotsford ridings could have gone to the Liberals, but the sweep was a surprise, along with the “other surprise” overall.
“This is the best thing that can happen to British Columbians,” said Sidhu.
He said “democracy spoke, well and alive” and he feels people understood the urgency in the last two weeks of the campaign.
According to Sidhu, the Liberals are the best choice to help the economy, education and health care.
Sidhu said Plecas, like de Jong has done in previous elections, “got the youth going” in his campaign.
“All three MLAs benefited from that youth machine, which Darryl got going.”
His one disappointment was the low turnout of voters (48 per cent) across the province.
“I thank the people that did come out and vote.”