The BC Liberal MLA for Kamloops North says his party did everything it could to capture Nanaimo in last night’s crucial byelection.

Peter Milobar says despite pulling out all the stops, having a great candidate, and hustling supporters to the polls the Liberals ran up against a formidable NDP machine.

“The NDP everyone knows they are well organized. When you are talking about a riding they have held for the better part of 50 years they, to their credit, tapped into that support base and that volunteer base and made sure they didn’t take it for granted. I think we did everything we could do and what we needed was the NDP to maybe a take a bit of a night off and they didn’t.”

Milobar says the Liberals gained nine points in the riding despite falling short but he adds the real story didn’t involve his Liberals or the victorious NDP.

“Probably the biggest story was the absolute collapse of the Green Party. They can spin it however they want but the reality is I think people are having a very tough time discerning the difference between the Green Party and the NDP. They have voted 100% of the time with them so far. I think that is starting to show how people’s voting patterns are going to be moving forward.”

In a crucial byelection with one seat separating the NDP and Green alliance and the opposition Liberals Sheila Malcolmson grabbed the seat with an almost 2,000 vote lead over the Liberals Tony Harris while the Greens were way back with a mere 7% of the vote.