Final Count Complete
Victoria, B.C. – Elections BC has completed final count and there’s no change to the results released on election night May 9.
The BC Liberals have 43 seats, the NDP 41 and the BC Greens 3 (44 seats is needed for a majority).
The NDP ended up winning the closest race (after initial count) in Courtenay-Comox by 189 votes. The NDP were ahead by just nine votes prior to roughly 2,000 absentee ballots being added to the mix in that riding.
Elections BC says there will be no automatic judicial recounts because the difference between the top two candidates in all ridings was not less than 1/500 of the total ballots considered.
A voter, candidate or candidate’s representative can apply to the Supreme Court of British Columbia for a judicial recount on the basis that errors were made in the acceptance or rejection of certification envelopes or ballots, or on the basis that ballot accounts are not correct.
Applications for a judicial recount can be made up to six days after the conclusion of final count.
The final vote count shows how divided the province is with the BC Liberals collecting 796,672 votes to the NDP’s 795,106 votes – a difference of 1,566 votes (40 per cent each. The BC Greens got 332, 387 votes, or roughly 17 per cent).
Premier Christy Clark released the following statement on final count this afternoon:
“I want to congratulate all candidates, from all parties, who put their names forward to run. It’s not easy, and they deserve our gratitude for working to make our province even better.
“With 43 BC Liberals candidates elected as MLAs, and a plurality in the legislature, we have a responsibility to move forward and form a government.
“The final result reinforces that British Columbians want us to work together, across party lines, to get things done for them.
“Our priority is to protect our strong economy and to manage BC’s finances responsibly, while listening closely to British Columbians on how we address important social and environmental priorities and how we can make BC politics more responsive, transparent, and accountable.
“The work is just beginning. My team and I look forward to delivering positive results for British Columbians.”
NDP Leader John Horgan had this to say:
“British Columbians have voted overwhelmingly to replace Christy Clark’s Liberals with a new government that works better for families. They voted for better schools, shorter wait times for health services, to defend our coast and to fix our broken political system.
“The newly elected BC NDP team will be working hard every day to ensure British Columbians get a new government that works for them instead of just the wealthy and well-connected.”
No word yet on any formal coalition arrangements. It’s the first minority government in B.C. since 1952.
Comments
now it is time for them to get to work and show us how they are going to hold up on all those “promises” yeah right!
Editor: I believe the losing candidates may apply to the Supreme Court of British Columbia, not the Supreme Court of Canada, for a judicial recount.
Thanks!
It’s Mr. Weaver’s stage now, hope he does well. Wish him luck.
Second worst possible outcome. Too bad.
Now we get to watch a real pissing contest …
Not really . Its more like proportional representation by proxy . In effect the libcreds will only have 42 votes as the speaker doesn’t get a vote . It comes down to numbers and attendance to vote .
The irony is palpable . Not since 1952 , the birthday of the British Columbia Social Credit Party . They lasted till Dave Barrett in 72 put an end to them . They didn’t last long this time , sixteen years on the birthday of the British Columbia Green Party .
BC Social Credit ‘League’ actually, Ataloss. WAC Bennett’s bunch never referred to themselves as a ‘Party’. Officially they were a ‘League’, and unofficially called themselves a ‘Movement’.
The original Social Credit ideology was very much anti-Party. It held that an elected MLA was the REPRESENTATIVE of his constituents FIRST, and should always act in their best interests, and not those of some ‘party’. If you read any newspapers from that era, you’ll be amazed to see how many Socred MLAs acted towards their own Premier and government when it didn’t deliver the results their constituents wanted. Some of them were worse opponents than those in the Opposition!
That ‘Party’ name attached to BC Social Credit came much later, after their defeat by Dave Barrett’s NDP and the subsequent ‘reverse takeover’ of BC Social Credit by the majority of the then BC Liberal Party caucus. The BC Liberals, at that time, had such a lousy reputation they could never get anyone elected outside of the ritzier big city ridings of Greater Vancouver. Over time, they used up the nostalgic marketability of the Social Credit name, and then went back to their original, and far more fitting moniker. Like all so-called Liberal parties, they’re really the party of the debt dealers.
It was the end of democracy when the Socreds died’
Cheers
The Greenies need to decide very quickly if they want to fish or cut bait..
If they think they can play both ends towards the middle, they will wake up this September staring an election in the face.
Their best bet is to form a Government with the NDP, and forget about proportional representation. At least forget about bringing it in without a referendum.
The NDP and the Greens will have enough to do, with Site C and the Pipelines, plus the possible mill closures because of the duty on BC lumber.
We need to get rolling on the serious issues, and forget about trying to set up a job security program by using proportional representation to get re-elected.
The KM pipe dream is going to die on its own . They can’t get financing from any bank , so they’ve gone the IPO route . They’ve had to drop the price to seventeen and still few takers . Nobody is stupid enough to by a potentially stranded asset . Soft wood duty is a federal matter . All bc can do about it is cry a little or diversify . Job security ? That makes no sense . We now have proportional representation by the numbers . Geez , can’t you see it ?
I doubt we’ll see a Green / NDP coalition. There’s more political mileage for both groups in just yapping against Site C, the pipeline, raw log exports, etc., than in ever having to actually do what they’ve said they want to do.
All those things are bringing money into the BC economy, and even if they do just actually represent pure inflation, it comes in under the guise of prosperity. Pseudo-prosperity, for sure, not the real thing, but most people can’t discern the difference. And to any politician, even pseudo-prosperity always looks better than the alternative, large scale un-employment.
We can see where the NDP and the Greens priorities lie.
1. Proportional Representation without a referendum (Hmmmm Democracy at its best)
2. Campaign financing. If you cant get sufficient support from your supporters and the opposition can, then change the rules in your favour.
3. Change the law to get official party status, so they can get to the trough.
Don’t see much here for the average tax paying citizens, who just happen to be the boss of those just elected. Seems its all about them, and nothing about us.
With the Greens running around wearing big boy hats, and pretending to be the **big** game changer is funny to watch, however you can only take so much.
I would be in favour of getting into another election sooner rather than later.
Could be they’re all in the perfect spot for a politician to be. Nobody has to do anything, since anything that might bring down the government can be avoided, and its avoidance can always be blamed on the other guys. They all get to feed at the trough, and live life like they’ve just won the lottery. Be interesting to see how long they can keep it up, but it could be quite awhile.
I suspect you’ve hit the nail on the head. Imagine, a 4 year well paying job where you really do have to do nothing.
Weaver has shown himself to be the biggest phoney of any of the party leaders. While railing against the fundraising methods of the other parties and claiming the greens were as pure as driven snow in that they accept only small donations from individuals. Truth is that behind the scenes was squeezing real estate developers in the lower mainland for big contributions, was reported obtained 20k from one and turned down trying to get 30k from another. Driven snow- pffft – more like the yellow kind found at the base of fire hydrants.
Worse yet is as mentioned above is that one of his non-negotiable items to join with one of the other parties, changing the voting system without a referendum. This has been turned down twice already through referendum according to Global BC (I only remember one). Such a fundamental change in our electoral system should not be left to a vote in the house but decided by all residents of BC. Essentially it is like a hostage situation where a party with three measly seats is holding a gun to the head of the province to try to get their way.
Clark and Horgan should both stand up to Weaver on this.
FYI ataloss- In the event of a tie vote in the house the speaker can cast the deciding vote to break that tie.
Your so smart sparrow.
Cheers
I guess that means that you are not so smart as proper usage of your, you’re and yore are taught in grade school.*
* maybe in Crapitsford they teach more important things like which end of the cow the distinctive “Valley Stench” is emmitted🤢💩☠
So according to Mr. Cheffins, a former B.C. Court of Appeal judge, Christy Clark is the premier at the moment. She has to bring in a throne speech, and if it’s voted down, it will be up to the lieutenant governor to decide to trigger an election or entertain an NDP/Green coalition.
I hope she goes for the latter otherwise we could be going to the poles for a very long time. People are pretty polarized right now and have no reason to vote differently.
But, if the coalition takes power I see two outcomes.
Socialism indeed does create a more just society where everyone who wants it has meaningful employment, health care is fully funded, education is fully funded, child poverty has come to an end, childcare is available for every person who needs it etc. Once that has been established, the NDP can go to the polls for a majority government, and even I would vote for them.
Or, history repeats itself, business confidence drops, people find their jobs disappearing, oil continues to get shipped by rail when the pipeline is blocked, and one big nasty train crash makes the NDP/Greens look like fools. Then some enterprising NDP’r will cross the floor just to try and save their own skin.
Either way, there has to be a change in something or we’ll just be living the Groundhog day movie.
Socialism is really no more than monopoly state capitalism with (continued) control by Finance. The “just society” under it is a myth, since the whole process ultimately always levels everyone down to the lowest common denominator by making and keeping money scarce and only available on terms.
The very word ‘equality’ means just that ~ NO quality. What’s needed is a means of bringing everyone up, recognising first of all that there is always a limit to personal material satiation, and that without the power that now comes from being ‘rich’ the vast majority of the rich would have no more use for further material acquisitiveness once that limit had been reached.
Did anyone read the nearly 200 page platforms that both the Libs and the NDP put out?
The NDP didn’t seem to mention anything about how they plan to pay for everything they promise.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot of business shying away from BC and gravitating more towards Saskatchewan right now. I wouldn’t blame them for it either.
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