B.C. Conservatives win their first majority in nearly a century, and Eby steps down
In Saturday's snap election in British Columbia, Lorne Doerkson's Conservatives lead in 64 of 93 ridings on 48% of the vote with 96.6% of ballot boxes reported. The NDP drops to 27 seats, David Eby holds his own riding by 541 votes and resigns as party leader.
David Eby called British Columbia’s election two years early to turn a one-seat majority into something sturdier. On Saturday night the province handed power to the Conservatives instead, and Eby announced he is stepping down as NDP leader.
With 96.6% of ballot boxes in, the Elections BC initial count has the Conservatives elected or leading in 64 of the 93 ridings, comfortably past the 47 needed for a majority. The NDP has 27 and the Greens 2. The popular vote gap is wider than ten points: 48% to 37.4%, with the Greens on 11%.
A 541-vote cushion at home
The sharpest number for the NDP sits in the leader’s own seat. In Vancouver-Point Grey, Eby took 7,795 votes to Conservative Alex McMillan’s 7,254. That is a margin of 541 in the riding of the man who called the vote.
Lorne Doerkson only became interim Conservative leader two days before the election was called in September. He held Cariboo-Chilcotin with almost 77% and will lead the province’s first Conservative government in close to a hundred years.
What he promised
The Conservative campaign ran on the cost of living, health care, housing and a record deficit. The pledges include a $1,000 tax cut for “nearly every” worker, 500 more RCMP officers for rural areas over five years and tripling liquefied natural gas production by 2035. Doerkson’s stated first priority is repealing the provincial act that puts the UN declaration on Indigenous rights into B.C. law, which looks set to be the new government’s first big fight.
For the Greens, new leader Emily Lowan won Saanich North and the Islands at her first attempt.
Not every vote is in
These are preliminary figures. Provisional turnout stands at 46%, and mail-in and absentee ballots are counted about two weeks later, with the final count set for 6 November. In a seat like Eby’s, that is where a 541-vote lead gets tested.
Eby had framed the campaign around Donald Trump as an existential threat to the province, months after Washington threatened Canada with tariffs over wildfire smoke. It was not enough.
Image: RoyalObserver / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
