BC NDP and Conservatives Neck and Neck as Vote Count Continues

As of mid0day Oct. 20, the B.C. NDP had won or was leading in 46 ridings, the B.C. Conservative Party had won or was leading in 45 ridings, and the B.C. Green Party had secured two seats. To win a majority government, a party needs to win 47 seats.
The results in three ridings are still being counted.
With the results being very close in some ridings, there could be potential recounts and challenges in the days ahead before the results can be made official. Elections BC is using electronic tabulators for the first time in this election to help count votes.
“We don’t know what the final count is going to be in the province, but what we do know is that there was a clear majority for the progressive values. And I take a lot of comfort from that,” he said.
He also acknowledged that Rustad “spoke to the frustrations of a lot of British Columbians” on issues such as affordability and public safety and vowed to “do better.”
“There is also another message in this narrowest of margins, that we’ve got to do better, and that was our commitment to British Columbians. We’ve got to do better, and we will do better,” he said.
Rustad told his supporters in Vancouver that his party had “not given up this fight” to form government.
“I am optimistic that people in this province are hungry for that change,” he said. “People are counting on the hope, on the opportunity, on the vision of what can be (a) prosperous British Columbia, not one, quite frankly, that is in a welfare state that it is today.”
Rustad also commented on the possibility of the NDP forming a minority government.
“If we’re in that situation of the NDP forming a minority government, we will look at every single opportunity from day one to bring them down at the very first opportunity and get back to the polls,” he said.
Furstenau said the results mean that her party is still going to play a “pivotal role” in the B.C. legislature.
“It’s a strange time in politics when, during an atmospheric river, people came out and voted for a party that’s denying the reality of climate change. But hey, this is where we’re at,” she said.
She added that she was happy for the two Green candidates who got elected.
For decades the party had no representation in the provincial legislature, but received a boost in 2021 when filmmaker and media commentator Aaron Gunn was blocked by the B.C. Liberals from running for the leadership of the party, and instead decided to revive the B.C. Conservatives.
Gunn later joined the federal Conservatives as a candidate, and the B.C. Conservatives voted in Rustad as their leader in March 2023.
Rustad, a former provincial cabinet minister in the Liberal government of Christy Clark, was kicked out of the then-B.C. Liberal Party (since renamed BC United) in 2022 by Leader Kevin Falcon for sharing a social media post that challenged the idea that carbon dioxide is the “control knob of global temperature” when it comes to climate change. He sat as an Independent prior to joining the Conservatives and becoming their only MLA in the legislature.
His party gained increasing momentum in the polls this year, and more MLAs left BC United to join the Conservatives. As polls showed the Conservatives overtaking BC United in popularity and rivalling the governing NDP, Falcon ended his party’s campaign in favour of the Conservatives in August.
The NDP came to power in 2017 after defeating the previous governing B.C. Liberals, and was re-elected in 2020. Eby, a former provincial attorney general, became NDP leader and premier in 2022 after John Horgan retired from the post.
A record 28 percent of registered voters cast their ballots early in advanced polls this year.
Elections B.C. said 1,001,331 people cast votes between Oct. 10 and 16, including 222,907 voting on the final day of advance polls.
The previous record was set during the pandemic in the 2020 election where 19 percent of registered voters (671,231) participated in advance polls.
Furstenau said the Greens would work towards opening 93 community health-care centres, expanding the number of drug consumption sites, and improving education on addiction.