BC Conservatives Expand Majority to 64 Seats

The BC Conservative Party expanded its majority to 64 seats in the 93-seat provincial legislature after Elections BC completed the final count of approximately 150,000 mail-in, phone, and absentee ballots. The final tally leaves the British Columbia New Democratic Party with 27 seats and the BC Green Party with two. The Conservatives secured between 47.4 and 47.7 per cent of the popular vote, while the NDP fell to 37.6 per cent.

During the final count, Conservative candidate David Xie flipped the Burnaby South-Metrotown riding, overcoming a 66-vote deficit to defeat NDP incumbent Paul Choi by 64 votes. However, two ridings have triggered judicial recounts by the BC Supreme Court because the margins were less than 1/500th of the total ballots cast. In Kelowna Centre, incumbent Conservative Kristina Loewen leads NDP candidate Loyal Wooldridge by 43 votes. In Ladysmith-Oceanside, NDP incumbent Stephanie Higginson leads by 50 votes.

Loewen expressed confidence that the recount would not change the outcome, noting she won by 43 votes. Wooldridge stated his campaign was a success despite the lack of a definitive result. Premier-elect Lorne Doerkson is scheduled to be sworn into office on November 20. He has already appointed Angelo Isidorou as principal secretary and Allie Blades as deputy chief of staff.