Fewer than 30-percent of eligible voters turned out for the Kelowna West byelection, but that was enough for Liberal candidate Ben Stewart to easily win the riding.
He took 57% of the vote yesterday, compared to 24% for the New Democrats and close to 13% for the Greens.
The Liberals now hold 42 seats to the NDP's 41 in the 87 seat legislature.
Despite that, Premier John Horgan's minority government retains a two-vote balance of power - thanks to the backing of the three Green Party MLAs.
In 2013 - Stewart also won for the Liberals, but stepped aside so then-premier Christy Clark could run in a safe seat after losing her Vancouver riding.
Stewart, who held a cabinet position when he was last in the legislature, says he's eager to get back to Victoria to take on the New Democrat's opposition to the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion - which has caused Alberta to place a ban on the import of BC wines.
He says the NDP are off-base in thinking they can go against the constitutional right of the Federal government. He also details of the pipeline expansion project took over a decade to hammer out - and strict protections imposed on the pipeline have been met.
"I think that we can't forget that we share the tidewater with the rest of Canada, and we have an obligation to make certain that we get goods and services to tidewater because Canada is a trading nation. British Columbia is becoming this island within in Canada, where it thinks it can kind of go it alone, and frankly that's just wrong," he says.
Stewart says local housing affordability and infrastructure also top his list of concerns.
(AM 1150 News/The Canadian Press)