British Columbia Conservatives Projected to Secure Historic Majority in Major Political Shift
British Columbia is on track to elect its first Conservative Party majority in 98 years, marking a dramatic political shift for Canada’s third most populous province. Canadian broadcasters indicate that the Conservative Party of BC is currently leading in 63 of the legislature’s 93 seats, while the BC New Democratic Party leads in 28 seats and the Green Party holds two. With counting still underway, election officials noted that final certified results could take hours or days to complete.
The projected outcome represents a severe setback for David Eby, the leader of the BC NDP who initiated the snap election last month after serving four years as premier. Eby had called the vote two years ahead of schedule in a bid to expand his razor-thin majority, a decision that subsequently drew sharp backlash from voters. The NDP has held power in the province since 2017, initially taking office under former Premier John Horgan before Eby assumed leadership in 2022. Eby’s narrow victory in the previous 2024 election left his administration vulnerable, where the absence, illness, or dissent of a single lawmaker could derail the legislative agenda.
The projected defeat leaves Wab Kinew of Manitoba as virtually the only left-wing premier remaining in power across Canada. The shift also elevates Lorne Doerkson, a former newspaper publisher and rodeo rider who stepped into the role of Conservative interim leader just 33 days prior to the election, to the threshold of the premier’s office. Doerkson assumed leadership following the September resignation of Kerry-Lynne Findlay under pressure from her caucus, after which previously resigned lawmakers quickly returned to the party fold.
Throughout the campaign, the BC Conservatives capitalized on voter dissatisfaction surrounding the province’s ballooning debt and fiscal deficits. S&P Global Ratings has downgraded the province five times over the span of five years. The Conservative platform pledged to reduce the deficit annually following their inaugural budget, albeit through a gradual trajectory.
Policy objectives outlined by the incoming administration include sweeping tax cuts on basic income, the elimination of green regulations such as the zero-emission vehicle sales quota, expedited permitting processes, and the repeal of legislation mandating provincial alignment with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Conservative leadership argued that the existing declaration law and associated policies introduce unacceptable uncertainty for homeowners and investors.
Additionally, the party aims to double British Columbia’s natural gas production by 2032, leveraging provincial jurisdiction over natural resource regulation as several large facilities for exporting liquefied natural gas from the coast to Asia come online and undergo further development. This resource-focused agenda aligns with the priorities of Prime Minister Mark Carney, who has championed BC LNG export terminals as a strategic mechanism to diversify Canadian trade away from the United States amid ongoing tariff pressures from President Donald Trump. Both federal Liberals and the provincial Conservatives share aligned stances on supporting mining and broader industrial sectors.
Despite these economic alignments, the Conservative platform carries potential friction points, particularly regarding BC’s more than 200 Indigenous communities, which retain robust legal rights under Canadian law. Analysts suggest this friction could manifest as legal challenges, public protests, and political tension with environmentally focused members within Prime Minister Carney’s federal Liberal caucus. Although the specific BC Conservative Party banner has not governed independently for a century, right-leaning predecessors previously held power, most recently under the BC Liberal Party. That organization rebranded as BC United ahead of the 2024 election before collapsing and clearing the path for the resurgent Conservatives.
