The Conservative Party of BC is leading in 63 of the legislature’s 93 seats, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. The BC New Democratic Party (NDP) has the lead in 28 seats and the Green Party in two. Counting is still ongoing and the final results may take hours or days.

The projected result looks like an embarrassing defeat for David Eby, the leader of the BC NDP who called the election last month after four years as premier, in an attempt to increase a slim majority.

It also suggests BC’s new premier will be Lorne Doerkson, until recently an obscure former newspaper publisher and rodeo rider who became the Conservatives’ interim leader just 33 days ago. As the possibility of an election loomed, Doerkson was quickly chosen to replace Kerry-Lynne Findlay, who had resigned in September under pressure from her caucus. Lawmakers who had resigned under Findlay rapidly returned to the fold.

The Conservatives promised to cut taxes including basic income tax, end green regulations including a zero-emission vehicle sales quota, speed permitting, and to repeal a piece of legislation which mandates the province uphold the United Nation Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Conservatives have said that law and related policies cause unacceptable uncertainty for homeowners and investors.

The Conservatives aim to double BC’s natural gas production by 2032. Several large facilities for exporting LNG from BC’s coast to Asia are coming online and in development. In Canada, sub-national provinces have significant power over natural resource regulation.

That approach dovetails with a major priority for Prime Minister Mark Carney, who has championed BC LNG export terminals as a means of diversifying Canada’s trade away from the US, while the country deals with tariffs from US President Donald Trump. Both Carney’s federal Liberals and the BC Conservatives will also be in sync on supporting mining and other industry.

However, the Conservatives’ approach may cause friction with BC’s more-than-200 Indigenous communities, which hold strong legal rights in Canada. That could lead to protests and lawsuits, and perhaps tension with environmentally-motivated members of Carney’s Liberal caucus.

Though the BC Conservative Party hasn’t governed in its own right for a century, right-leaning parties with other names have — most recently the BC Liberal Party. Ahead of 2024’s election, that party changed its name to BC United, collapsed, and was supplanted by the Conservatives.

The New Democratic Party has been in power since 2017. It took office under former premier John Horgan, who passed the leadership to Eby in 2022. Eby won very narrowly in 2024’s election, which meant the absence, illness or dissent of a single lawmaker in his party could derail his governing programme. 

He has faced backlash for calling the election two years early. Eby’s defeat means almost no left-wing premiers remain in power across Canada apart from the NDP’s Wab Kinew in Manitoba.

The Conservatives attacked Eby and the NDP for the government’s ballooning debt and deficits. The province has been downgraded five times in five years by S&P Global Ratings. Doerkson’s platform said the Conservatives would shrink the deficit every year after their first budget, albeit slowly.

Uploaded by Liza Shireen Koshy