VICTORIA -- Green Party candidate and incumbent MP Paul Manly is projected to win his riding of Nanaimo-Ladysmith.

By 8 p.m. Manly was ahead with approximately 34 per cent of the vote over Conservative candidate John Hirst.

CTV News declared Manly the projected winner just before 9 p.m.

Manly won the seat in a May 2019 byelection after former New Democrat MP Sheila Malcolmson resigned the seat to run successfully in a provincial byelection in Nanaimo.

Manly’s victory in May made him just the second Green MP to be elected.

Manly was born in Port Alice and has called nanaimo home for almost 20 years. He has been a researcher, a filmmaker and a communications specialist.