Recap: How the vote fell in B.C.
Opposition Conservatives finished election night with a narrow B.C. lead over the minority government Liberals. NDP's leader and deputy leader both lose.
Mark Carney’s Liberals will stay in power as a minority government, but British Columbia helped Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives to the party’s strongest popular vote in history.
Before midnight, the Conservatives were leading or elected in 20 B.C. ridings, one more than the Liberals. The NDP (3) and Greens (1) were leading or elected in the remaining ridings.
By B.C. popular vote, the Conservatives led the Liberals by a 1.6% margin.
Turnout was more than 55% in B.C.
Orange Crunch
The NDP’s top two elected officials finished third in their respective ridings.
In his Burnaby Central concession speech, leader Jagmeet Singh announced he would resign upon the naming of a new leader. Liberal Wade Chang was the winner.
Peter Julian, the deputy leader, lost New Westminster-Burnaby-Maillardville to Conservative Indy Panchi.
Who will take over?
One possibility, at least as a caretaker, is Jenny Kwan. She kept her Vancouver East seat after a challenge from Mark Wiens, the Mandarin-speaking, Richmond real estate agent.
Kwan has experience with a party in distress. In 2001, she was in a caucus of two with the B.C. NDP after BC Liberal Gordon Campbell’s 77-seat landslide.
In Saanich-Gulf Islands, Green co-leader Elizabeth May won for the fifth time, fending off challenges from Liberal David Beckham, Conservative Cathie Ounsted and NDPer Colin Plant. The other Green co-leader, Jonathan Pedneault, was last place in Outremont, Que.
Further up island, Conservative Aaron Gunn beat the NDP’s Tanille Johnston in North Island-Powell River.
“Unqualified to be an MP”
Voters in Abbotsford-South Langley agreed with the Conservative Party, that former BC Liberal cabinet minister Mike de Jong is “unqualified to be an MP.”
De Jong, rejected in March by the party, ran as an independent. He finished a distant third behind winner Sukhman Gill of the Conservatives and Liberal Kevin Gillies.
At deadline, the Conservatives were winning back one of the ridings lost in 2021.
Coun. Chak Au led Liberal incumbent Wilson Miao in Richmond Centre-Marpole, meaning a civic by-election is inevitable.
Conservative Zach Seagal was narrowly losing to Liberal incumbent Parm Bains in Richmond East-Steveston.
Star candidate
Former Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson made a political comeback in Vancouver Fraserview-South Burnaby.
Mark Carney’s star candidate is destined for a cabinet seat. He made the environment his priority during his 10 years at Vancouver city hall. He made big affordable housing promises coming into office in 2008, even promising to end street homelessness by 2015. Didn’t happen. Instead, Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside became an even bigger ghetto and the city became a magnet for luxury real estate investors in Mainland China.
Robertson is a resident of a Vancouver Centre penthouse. His MP is Liberal Hedy Fry, who won for an 11th time.
Avi Lewis was a distant third. The longtime far left NDPer ran on an anti-Israel platform.
Results slowdown
The Elections Canada website crashed, just in time for polls to close on the West Coast.
Spokesperson James Hale said the cause is under investigation. “We know that it was not a cyberattack.”
It took until 9:15 p.m. for a contingency measure to allow voters to access the website. But the online voter information service remained offline.