BC Today – Daily Report October 26, 2020 Quotation of the day “Hats off 2 NDP for beating the c--p out of us.” Former BC Liberal cabinet minister Bill Bennett congratulates NDP Premier John Horgan. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Today in B.C. Written by Shannon Waters Premier watch After a historic election night that saw his party exceed most predictions, NDP Premier John ​ Horgan addressed reporters on Sunday morning following a conversation with ​ Lieutenant-Governor Janet Austin. ​ ​ The NDP’s election night showing was so strong, the party is predicted to form a decisive ​ majority, even though roughly one-third of ballots are yet to be counted. Elections BC received ​ approximately 478,900 mail-in ballots ahead of voting day, all of which will not begin to be counted until November 6. The same goes for the 75,000 absentee ballots that were cast. Reiterating his election night vow to “respect the process” and await the results of the final count, Horgan said he still plans to head back to Victoria today and get the ball rolling. “There is a lot of work to be done,” he said, mentioning a need to “continue working” on the NDP’s climate action and Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples commitments. The NDP leader told reporters he is proud of his party’s campaign but had hoped for a stronger showing outside of B.C.’s urban areas. “I would have liked to have seen better results in rural British Columbia, and I'll continue to work hard to build better relationships and better understandings of the challenges in rural British Columbia,” he said. The NDP’s projected majority will allow him to spend less time in the house supporting votes, Horgan added, and more time travelling the province to “be the spokesperson” for his government’s agenda, including policies that “will benefit rural British Columbia.” “I’m going to keep working on those, and I’m going to have more hands-on work there,” Horgan said. Asked about the composition of his cabinet, Horgan said any announcements will wait until after the final ballot count is completed. (This process will include election officials, scrutineers lawyers, the Globe and Mail explains.) ​ ​ ​ ​ “My only regret is that Carol James will no longer be sitting by my side,” he said. “That is a hole ​ ​ — in my personal life and in the government — that it will be very, very hard to fill.” Greens celebrate mainland gain as Liberals bleed (but don’t concede) With news outlets declaring an NDP victory less than two hours after the polls closed, Saturday was a somber night for the BC Liberal campaign. Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson addressed British Columbians just after 10 p.m., but he took ​ ​ no questions and did not explicitly concede the election. “As the results stand tonight, the NDP are clearly ahead and it appears they will have the opportunity to form government, but with almost half a million mail in ballots still to be counted, we don't know what the final seat count will be,” Wilkinson said. “We owe it to every voter — every voter no matter how they expressed their intention — to await the final results.” Voter intention polls indicate that advance and mail-in voters favoured the NDP. ​ ​ Liberal incumbents lag rivals So far, 10 Liberal incumbents have fewer votes than NDP challengers — or a Green challenger in the case of West Vancouver—Sea to Sky — while another seven are leading by less than 1,000 votes ahead of the final count. The Liberals stand to lose four of the seven seats where veteran MLAs did not seek re-election — all of them to the NDP. The Green Party had more to celebrate with Jeremy Valeriote’s likely victory in West ​ ​ Vancouver—Sea to Sky. The initial count put Valeriote 604 votes ahead of Liberal Jordan ​ Sturdy; however, Elections BC received 7,704 mail-in ballot requests in the riding. ​ Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau managed to hold on to her riding through the initial count, ​ ​ as did Green MLA Adam Olsen. However, neither managed a decisive victory given the ​ ​ number of mail-in ballots requested in each of their ridings. During her election night address, Furstenau pledged to continue to hold the NDP’s feet to the fire. “The NDP have shown that while they will say the right thing, they won't act on it unless they are forced to,” she said. “We know there is a lot more that you are expecting from government, and we will do everything we can to hold them accountable for these changes and to be the voice for you in the next legislature.” Too close to call: Ridings where the mail-in vote may matter most With roughly 600,000 votes yet to be counted, there are four ridings where the leading candidate’s margin of victory is less than 200 votes and more than a dozen where the election night victor leads by less than 1,000 votes. Leading by a hair The four too-close-to-call ridings are all traditional Liberal strongholds, but the initial count puts the NDP ahead by a hair in two of them. Richmond South Centre has the narrowest margin with 124 votes separating NDP candidate Harry Yao from Liberal hopeful Alexa Loo. ​ ​ ​ ​ In Abbotsford—Mission, NDP candidate and Mission Mayor Pam Alexis is just 188 votes ​ ​ behind Liberal incumbent Simon Gibson while in Vernon—Monashee Liberal whip Eric Foster ​ ​ ​ leads NDP challenger Harwinder Sandhu by 180 votes. ​ ​ One of the most surprising narrow upsets of the night happened in Chilliwack—Kent, where NDP candidate Kelli Paddon came out 195 votes ahead of incumbent Laurie Throness, who ​ ​ ​ ​ competed as an Independent after being ousted from the Liberal Party. The next narrowest margin of victory is Liberal incumbent Jackie Tegart’s 385 vote lead on ​ ​ NDP challenger Aaron Sumexheltza in Fraser—Nicola. In incumbent-less ​ ​ Richmond—Steveston, NDP candidate Kelly Greene came out 596 votes ahead of Liberal ​ ​ candidate Matt Pitcairn. ​ ​ Narrow margins The remaining 11 close ridings feature margins of more than 600 votes for the candidate leading on election night. That includes Green candidate Jeremy Valeriote, who bested Liberal ​ ​ incumbent Jordan Sturdy by 604 votes in West Vancouver—Sea-to-Sky. ​ ​ Three Liberal incumbents — Richmond—Queensborough’s Jas Johal, Parksville—Qualicum’s ​ ​ Michelle Stilwell and Vancouver—False Creek’s Sam Sullivan — will await the final count with ​ ​ ​ bated breath as they currently sit several hundred votes behind NDP challengers. Another five Liberals are ahead in their ridings but could end up conceding to NDP opponents following the final count: Kamloops—North Thompson’s Peter Milobar, Richmond North ​ ​ Centre’s Teresa Wat, Skeena’s Ellis Ross, Surrey—White Rock’s Stephanie Cadieux and ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Vancouver—Langara’s Michael Lee. ​ ​ In the remaining two ridings, both of which lacked incumbents, the NDP is leading. In Langley East, formerly held by Liberal veteran Rich Coleman, the NDP’s Megan Dykeman leads ​ ​ ​ ​ Liberal Margaret Kunst by 793 votes. In Nelson—Creston, NDP candidate Brittny Anderson is ​ ​ ​ ​ hoping to maintain her 934 lead on Green candidate Nicole Charlwood and keep the riding ​ ​ NDP. The BC Conservatives won no seats but contributed to the Liberals’ woes with respectable showings in a number of ridings. That includes Peace River North where Conservative leader Trevor Bolin placed second with 35 per cent of the vote behind Liberal incumbent Dan Davies. ​ ​ The Conservatives had enough votes to make the difference in four close ridings that went NDP. Elections BC estimates that the final count will be completed by November 16. Topics of conversation ● B.C. reported 223 new Covid cases on Friday. There were 2,009 active cases (up 89) with 75 people in hospital (up four), 24 of them critical. No new deaths were reported, leaving the provincial total at 256. ○ Two new health-care outbreaks were reported while four were declared over for a total of 18 active outbreaks at health-care facilities. ○ Two new community outbreaks were reported at Coast Spas Manufacturing and Pace Processing in Fraser Health. BC Today is written by Shannon Waters, reporting from the British Columbia Legislative Press Gallery. What did you think of this Daily Report? What else would you like to see here? 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