British Columbia's Conservatives win majority in snap election, ending nearly century-long drought
Lorne Doerkson, a former rodeo announcer elected leader weeks earlier, becomes premier as the Conservatives capture 64 of 93 seats, defeating incumbent NDP Premier David Eby's gamble to call an early election.
What happened
British Columbia held a snap election on Saturday in which the provincial Conservatives won 64 of 93 seats, securing a majority government. Lorne Doerkson, a 58-year-old former rodeo announcer and newspaper publisher first elected to the BC Legislative Assembly in 2020, assumed the party leadership only weeks before the election after predecessor Kerry-Lynne Findlay resigned in September following internal party conflict that caused a third of her caucus to depart. Doerkson learned of his party's desire for him to lead while traveling home from South Africa. The NDP won 27 seats and the BC Green Party won two. This marks the first Conservative majority win in the province in nearly a century. NDP Premier David Eby, who became premier in 2022, called the snap election two years early to shore up his party's power and counter what he characterized as Trump-style economic threats, but the gamble backfired. Eby resigned as provincial NDP leader in his concession speech, accepting full responsibility for the outcome. Doerkson has pledged to cut red tape through fast-tracked forestry and mining permits and to triple natural gas production by 2035.
Context
The election represents a major provincial political realignment after Eby sought to exploit divisions within the Conservative caucus by calling an early vote. Eby's one-seat majority made his position fragile, as he noted any single vote could bring down his government. However, voters instead chose to remove the NDP from power entirely, replacing them with a party led by a relative outsider who had minimal notice of his elevation to leadership. The provincial result compounds recent Canadian political turbulence, following the Parti Québécois's minority government win earlier in September, adding pressure to national unity.