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After the race, he told media he would attack NDP Premier John Horgan with everything he has.

“My task is to make sure we hold the NDP to account with smart incisive questions that will make their skin crawl,” Wilkinson said. He also pledged to fracture the power-sharing relationship between Horgan and Green leader Andrew Weaver.

“Our job is to drive the wedge between them and make sure they are more and more uncomfortable with each other and get ready for an election,” he said. “That’s our job.”

Wilkinson said he would reach out to young voters, do a better job of promoting the Liberal plan for the environment and wildlife management, and try to appeal to female voters. He also promised to fight to defeat the proportional representation referendum.

Wilkinson was advanced education minister in former premier Clark’s government. He had 13 endorsements from Liberal caucus MLAs, the most of any of the six candidates.

The support gave him toeholds in key parts of the province and an ability to tap the networks of popular MLAs in the Kootenays, Langley, Parksville-Qualicum, Skeena, Kelowna-Lake Country, Surrey, Prince George and the Cariboo.

Wilkinson also benefited from a deal signed with rival de Jong, in which both agreed to encourage supporters to make the other candidate their second choice under the preferential ballot system.

Wilkinson sought to remake his image early in the campaign, expanding beyond his reputation as an Oxford-education lawyer and a physician who represents one of the wealthiest ridings in the province in Vancouver-Quilchena.