B.C. election uncertainty reflects voter 'frustration,' Eby says as final results pending

More than three hours after the polls closed in British Columbia's nail-biting provincial election, with both the NDP and Conservatives locked in a near standoff, New Democrat Leader David Eby urged his party’s supporters to keep the faith as they waited for the last deciding votes to be counted.

Neither party had achieved the 47 seats necessary to form a majority government in the B.C. legislature before midnight Saturday, with both the NDP and Conservatives seemingly stalled within striking distance. 

The Greens were poised to hold onto two seats, prompting Eby to declare the night's preliminary results "a clear majority for the progressive values" shared by his party.

"We couldn't have done it without you, and it's not even done," an exasperated Eby proclaimed to supporters in Vancouver.

Several high-profile NDP cabinet ministers retained their seats Saturday, including Health Minister Adrian Dix, Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth, Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon, and Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Jennifer Whiteside.

Eby was re-elected in his riding with more than 55 per cent of the vote, knocking off Conservative challenger Paul Ratchford and Green contender Devyani Singh.

"There is also another message in this narrowest of margins," Eby said as the election still hung in the balance. "That we've got to do better, and that was our commitment to British Columbia."

• Related: View full results on our interactive election map

Eby, who has served as MLA for Vancouver-Point Grey since 2013, first became premier in 2022 after an internal NDP process named him party leader when former premier John Horgan abruptly left office due to health issues.

Throughout the campaign, the 48-year-old Eby contrasted his vision for the province with that of his main challenger, B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad, whom the NDP portrayed as an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist whose party made a home for candidates with extremist views on an array of social issues.

The Conservative leader maintained that it would be up to voters to ultimately judge his party as he ignored calls to denounce his fellow candidates even as widespread public condemnation threatened to knock his campaign off message at every turn.

'We disagree on many things'

The 61-year-old Rustad, who was kicked out of the B.C. Liberal caucus in 2022 for expressing doubts about the science of climate change, was acclaimed Conservative leader the following year and quickly brought the party back from political obscurity.

The party's meteoric rise was affirmed less than eight weeks before the election with the collapse of the centre-right B.C. United party, formerly the B.C. Liberals.

Rustad, who has represented ridings in the Prince George area since 2005, campaigned on promises to cut taxes and kickstart the economy while ending B.C.'s drug decriminalization pilot project and expanding involuntary treatment for those with addictions and mental health issues.

Rustad was re-elected in his riding of Nechako Lakes with more than 65 per cent of the vote, handily defeating NDP contender Murphy Abraham and Green challenger Douglas Gook.

"We disagree on many things, John Rustad and I, there's no question," Eby said. "But I will absolutely acknowledge that he spoke to the frustrations of a lot of British Columbians – frustrations about the cost of daily life, frustrations about crime and public safety, and we can agree on these things."

Green Leader Sonia Furstenau, who acknowledged during the campaign that her party would not form government, painted Eby and Rustad as indistinguishable on such issues as health care, the toxic drug crisis and subsidies for fossil fuel companies.

In the waning days of the campaign, Eby urged Green voters to back the NDP to keep Rustad's Conservatives from forming government in a tightening race.

Furstenau countered by saying voters should choose the party that best represents their values, saying Green voices in the legislature would be necessary to keep the next government in check.

The 54-year-old Green leader would not be among those voices, however. Furstenau was defeated in her own Victoria-Beacon Hill riding Saturday, losing to NDP incumbent Grace Lore, who earned more than 45 per cent of the vote.

Conservatives last won in 1928

The Greens won a respectable 15.1 per cent of the vote total in 2020, while the Conservatives won 1.9 per cent, the Liberals won 33.8 per cent and the NDP won 47.7 per cent, according to Elections BC data.

The last time a Conservative government was elected in B.C. was in 1928, when Simon Fraser Tolmie led the party to victory over the rival B.C. Liberals, who last held power under former premier Christy Clark in 2017.

More than one million British Columbians cast their ballots early ahead of Saturday's election, smashing the previous record for advance voting set during the COVID-19 pandemic four years ago.

The early votes accounted for more than 28 per cent of all registered electors in the province, easily topping the 2020 record of 670,000 advance votes, representing about 19 per cent of registered voters.

Voters who didn't cast their ballots early likely wished they had by Saturday as an election-day storm delayed voting in many parts of the province.

High winds and heavy rains knocked out power at voting places in parts of the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands, Kamloops, Haida Gwaii and northern B.C.

Power was restored at all but a handful of the sites before polls closed at 8 p.m., though localized flooding and washouts in parts of Metro Vancouver left many roadways impassable.

Several thousand homes and businesses were without electricity for much of the day as BC Hydro reported downed trees and power lines due to the atmospheric river covering much of the province.