In an extremely close election race and after a long night of waiting for ballots to be counted, David Eby appears set to return to the BC Legislature with a minority government.
However, recounts in a small number of riding could change the results.
The NDP have 46 ridings and the Conservatives have 45, with more than 99 per cent of the ballots counted. The BC Green Party has been elected in two ridings, but party leader Sonia Furstenau lost to Grace Lore of the NDP in Victoria-Beacon Hill.
The BC Conservative Party turned the electoral map blue on Northern Vancouver Island with victories in North Island and Courtenay-Comox on Saturday.
In North Island, Conservative Anna Kindy ousted NDP incumbent Michele Babchuck by 13,896 to 13,215 votes in one of several tight races on the Island.
Kindy thanked her team for getting her message out to voters and says that door knocking on 17-thousand doors told her that people in North Island wanted change, adding that it will be coming.
In Courtenay-Comox, Brennan Day of the Conservative Party defeated incumbent Ronna-Rae Leonard of the NDP with 13,146 votes to Leonard’s 12,913.
Elsewhere, the NDP held on to win on most of Vancouver Island.
The Juan de Fuca-Malahat riding went to Dana Lajeunesse of the NDP with 8,942 votes, only slight ahead of Marina Sapozhnikov of the Conservative Party who received 8,916.
In Cowichan Valley, North Cowichan and Cowichan Tribes councilor Debra Toporowski running under the NDP banner defeated John Koury of the Conservative Party 11,422 to 10,699.
In Nanaimo-Gabriola, incumbent Sheila Malcolmson was re-elected and says she’s breathing a sigh of relief and grateful that so many people worked really hard, volunteered every day, and the voters showed up.
Josie Osborne of the NDP took the riding of Mid Island-Pacific Rim, George Anderson of the NDP was elected in Nanaimo-Lantzville, and Stephanie Higginson of the NDP won in Ladysmith Oceanside.
In the Powell River-Sunshine Coast constituency, the NDP’s Randene Neill won with 14,060 votes in total, over 3,000 more than Conservative Candidate Chris Moore, who had 10,211 votes.
Neill says it feels wonderful to get elected to this riding.
“It feels like our team did a fantastic job of working really hard for several months to talk to as many people as we could, listen to their concerns on the doorstep and get their vote.”
She says once she’s sworn in, she plans to continue talking to the community on issues such as housing, affordability, and work together to work on those issues.
“Going forward, we will all have to work together, and the number one thing I want to make sure is that everyone’s voice is heard in Victoria.”
