British Columbians are voting today in a snap provincial election called two years early by NDP Leader David Eby, with polls open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
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British Columbians voted today in a snap provincial election called two years early by NDP Leader David Eby, a move the NDP leader described earlier as needing a new mandate to deal with challenges he associated with U.S. President Donald Trump.
During the campaign, Eby later said the election was needed to end frustrations with a “stalled out” legislature where the NDP held a one-seat majority, and he regretted not making that clearer.
The five-week election campaign included competing proposals on health care and housing, as well as debate over the province’s record deficit and the rising cost of living.
Polls opened at 8 a.m. and closed at 8 p.m. for the snap election.
Elections BC said votes cast on election day will be counted by hand, despite electronic tabulators being used for the first time in 2024, citing the tight timelines in the snap election and the technical requirements to get the machines up and running.
Mail-in and absentee ballots will not be counted until about two weeks after election day, with Elections BC saying it needs time to ensure that only eligible voters vote, and only once.
Elections BC reported that more than 891,000 advance votes were cast, representing about 24 per cent of all registered voters.
When the legislature was dissolved, it officially consisted of 47 New Democrats, 29 Conservatives, two Greens and 13 Independents, with two vacant seats.
The campaign coverage also noted that many of the nominal Independents were Conservatives who returned to the party after interim Conservative leader Lorne Doerkson secured his party’s top job two days before the election call in September.
According to the same reporting, Conservatives went into the election holding about 37 seats.
Doerkson also said his top priority was repealing the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.
The Greens are led by Emily Lowan, and this is her first provincial election; the party’s platform included taxing household wealth over $50 million, opening a community health centre in every riding, and reforming the province’s oil and gas royalty framework.
The Conservatives promised no tax increases and said they would raise B.C.’s basic personal income tax exemption from $13,216 to $32,000, which was described as resulting in a $1,000 tax cut for most individual workers.
The NDP’s campaign included a proposed new tax bracket for people making more than $1 million to help fund health care, price caps on some basic groceries, and a training program for qualified international medical graduates already living in B.C.
Other parties seeking votes included CentreBC, led by former Conservative Elenore Sturko, and OneBC, whose interim leader Dallas Brodie is also a former Conservative.
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