Canada is flipping, and British Columbia flipped hardest on Saturday: the Conservative Party won the provincial election with 64 of the 93 seats in the legislature — its first election win in the province since 1928 — ending nine years of New Democrat rule. With nearly every ballot box counted, the Conservatives took about 48 per cent of the vote, the NDP fell to 27 seats on about 37 per cent, and the Greens held two seats. A majority needs 47 seats. The remaining ballots, including mail-in votes, are scheduled for a final count around November 6, so the seat split stands as the preliminary count.
Premier-elect Lorne Doerkson took the stage in Vancouver to fireworks and told supporters: "B.C. is definitely blue." His promise was energy. "I believe in energy. We will cut red tape like it's never been cut before," he said, pledging to double natural gas production by 2032 and more than triple it by 2035 — a build-out he says means tens of thousands of jobs and at least $6 billion a year for hospitals and schools. He promised to "supercharge" the province, to host a business summit in Vancouver next year to welcome capital back, and to start with a $1,000 tax cut with no new taxes.
For David Eby, the night ended his government and his leadership. Eby called the snap election two years early, saying he needed a stronger mandate to confront President Donald Trump's tariff threats against Canada; voters instead handed the province to the Conservatives. "I accept full responsibility for that outcome," Eby said in his concession speech. "I'll be offering my resignation as premier, obviously, but just as importantly as the leader of the BC NDP," he said, adding that "it is time for new leadership within our party." Eby held his own Vancouver seat, and the NDP now sits as the official opposition for the first time since 2017.
The result is also a story about the United States. The campaign ran under the shadow of Trump's trade war with Canada, and Eby had made standing up to the tariffs his reason for calling the vote. Polling through the campaign showed voters put the cost of living, housing and health care first, with the trade war behind them. Doerkson's party campaigned on ending emissions limits, replacing the province's carbon tax framework, and reaching out to the energy companies — among them ExxonMobil, Chevron and Woodside — that have left the province's liquefied natural gas sector since 2018. Prime Minister Mark Carney congratulated Doerkson on his win and said he looked forward to working with him to "unleash our full potential as an energy superpower."
Doerkson's rise was one of the fastest in Canadian history: a former newspaper publisher and the MLA for Cariboo-Chilcotin, he became the party's interim leader only on September 20, after Kerry-Lynne Findlay resigned, and reunited a caucus that had been shedding members. Five weeks later he is premier-elect. The party he leads won less than two per cent of the vote in 2020; on Saturday it formed a majority government.
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