Mr. Speaker, a general election was held recently in British Columbia that introduced many new faces to the legislative assembly of British Columbia and a record amount of female MLAs will be heading to Victoria.
In my area, I would like to congratulate first-time MLAs Linda Larson in Boundary-Similkameen and Jackie Tegart in Fraser—Nicola, along with Penticton Mayor Dan Ashton being elected to the provincial level for the first time and Ben Stewart also being successfully re-elected in Westside-Kelowna.
I would also like to take a moment to sincerely thank former Fraser—Nicola Valley NDP MLA Harry Lali for 18 years of service to his community and retiring Penticton MLA and Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Bill Barisoff, for 17 years of service to the South Okanagan.
I greatly enjoyed working with both Harry Lali and Bill Barisoff and would like to wish both gentlemen well in their future endeavours.
I look forward to working with our new and re-elected MLAs in the years ahead.