Kootenay Central
Kootenay Central is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada.
It made its first appearance under the name Nelson-Creston in the general election of 1933 following a redistribution of the earlier Nelson and Creston ridings.
Historically, the riding was consistently held by the "free enterprise" party of the era. Until 1952, this alternated between the BC Liberals and the Coalition, while after the election in 1952, Social Credit won every election until the BC NDP victory in 1972.
Since 1972, the NDP has won all but two elections: in the 1986 election, Social Credit won the riding along with many others in the Interior and in 2001, prominent NDP Cabinet minister Corky Evans was defeated in an election that saw all but two NDP MLAs suffer defeat. Since the 2005 election, the NDP has won the riding by wide margins, although increasing Green Party support has cut into NDP margins, often producing the strongest Green results in Interior BC.
The riding adopted its current name and had minor boundary changes from the 2024 election, which implemented the results of the 2021 redistribution.
Demographics
Geography
As of the 2024 provincial election, Kootenay Central comprises the eastern portion of the Regional District of Central Kootenay. It is located in southeastern British Columbia and is bordered by the United States to the south. Communities in the electoral district consist of Nelson, Creston, Salmo, and Kaslo.Members of the Legislative Assembly
Election results
Kootenay Central
Nelson-Creston
! style="text-align:right;" colspan="3"|Total valid votes!align="right"| 16,523
!align="right"|100%
! style="text-align:right;" colspan="3"|Total rejected ballots
!align="right"|98
!align="right"|0.6%
! style="text-align:right;" colspan="3"|Turnout
!align="right"|16,621
!align="right"|60%