Eby Resigns as Conservatives Sweep BC Election

Conservative Party of BC Leader Lorne Doerkson took the stage Saturday to claim victory to a background of fireworks and music.

“B.C. is definitely blue,” Doerksen said as he grabbed the podium. He opened his victory speech by thanking his family, party volunteers, BC NDP Leader David Eby and BC Green Party Leader Emily Lowan. Then, he recounted his past.

The MLA from Cariboo-Chilcotin worked as a rodeo rider and a newspaper publisher before running for office.

“I have watched a lot of people get thrown at the rodeo; I've been thrown a few times myself,” he said. “You pick up yourself, dust yourself off, and you get back on. And the crowd gets to its feet for you because you're fine. That is the approach that I have brought to my political life.”

First elected in 2020 as a BC Liberal, Doerksen ran as a Conservative in the 2024 election. He was unanimously appointed interim leader just days before the election was called in September.

“British Columbians are hard-working, trail-blazing people. They want a fair shot at building something in this province,” he said. “When I say that we are going to supercharge British Columbia, I want you to know where it happens.”

In his victory speech, Doerkson promised to double natural gas production by 2032 and triple it by 2035. He repeated his promise not to introduce any new taxes.

“Plain and simple, I believe in bringing business back to British Columbia,” he said. “We will cut red tape like never before.”

Eby addressed a sombre election-night gathering and said he had called Doerkson to congratulate him and would be resigning, “obviously.”

Eby said the loss “breaks [his] heart” and he accepts full responsibility, but is also proud of what the party accomplished in the past nine years.

"As I was driving here in the car with my family, with Cailey [Lynch, his spouse], we drove past the Broadway subway under construction," he said. “We drove past the Sen̓áḵw housing development, massive rental housing development by the Squamish First Nation on land that had been taken from that that they now own. That's the new Henry Hudson school, one of the 250 schools that we opened. Past the old St. Paul's Hospital, they have a big sign up front about the new St. Paul's Hospital and the amazing research building that will be there to provide cutting-edge, life-saving medicine to British Columbians.”

“I thought about the million British Columbians that now have a family doctor who didn't before.... We drove past so many little stores where people are working for minimum wage, and I reflected on the fact that when we started this journey, we had the lowest minimum wage in the country, and now we have the highest. This was a 15-minute drive in one city in British Columbia. We did this in every corner of British Columbia as government, and we should all be proud of that.”

Former BC NDP leader Adrian Dix, who experienced an unexpected loss to BC Liberal leader Christy Clark in 2013, said this election had been brutal for the BC NDP and the election call had been a mistake.

"Every election in B.C. is close, and this election throughout, it was close. And so, if you're calling an election in B.C., you've got to accept the fact that it's up to the voters, and you might win and you might lose," Dix said.

“But I'm not going to tonight get into analysis of all that. Clearly, given the result, it was a mistake to call the election, and I think the premier acknowledged that and he took responsibility for that.”

Eby appeared as the results suggested 62 seats for the Conservatives, 29 for the NDP and two for the Greens.

With about 94 per cent of ballot boxes counted at 10:50 p.m., Elections BC is reporting the Conservatives have nearly 48 per cent of the popular vote and the NDP trails with less than 38 per cent. That translates to the Conservatives elected or leading in 64 of the 93 seats in the legislature and the NDP with 27.

The BC Green Party, led by Emily Lowan, has received about 11 per cent of the vote and is leading in two seats.

Lowan stepped on the podium amidst a burst of confetti and a full room. The 26-year-old’s win in Saanich North and the Islands makes her the youngest elected party leader in Canadian history.

"We may have a small caucus, but tonight we have inherited an enormous responsibility, and that is to hold a majority Conservative government to account," Lowan said to cheers across the room.

"There's a heaviness that comes with this as well," she said. "I think we're holding the weight of both the joy of this victory and what comes tomorrow.

"Over the next four years, our job is to be a voice for the many people who will be harmed by their policies, and that is going to require some serious movement building."

Lowan spoke of the opportunity to build the Green Party movement in the coming years.

“We are facing the death rattle of the old world, and the only way out is through,” she said.

"Let us remember that the legislature belongs to the people, and we can take it back for the people too."

The Conservative party went into election night with a narrow lead in the polls. It’s a far cry from the chaos before the election was called. Eight Conservative MLAs had left the party for CentreBC and at least 10 had signed a letter asking then-leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay to step down. The Conservative caucus had shrunk to 28 MLAS — down from 44 since the last election.

In the month since, Doerkson was able to turn things around.

A former BC Liberal, Doerkson pulled his party in a more moderate direction.

Over at BC NDP headquarters, press secretary Erin Burchett said that when Eby explained to voters how precarious the party’s one-MLA majority is, they understood why he had called the snap election.

Burchett said the campaign team also heard from British Columbians that they wanted Eby to “do more of what he was already doing, whether that be about health care, housing, affordability, to go do those extra steps, take the policy a little bit further.”

But Eby suddenly faced a new foe in Lorne Doerkson, a former newspaper publisher from the Cariboo-Chilcotin who immediately struck a more moderate tone.

Polls almost immediately showed that B.C. voters were extremely skeptical about the need for a provincial election: just three days after Eby’s election call, an Angus Reid poll showed support for the Conservatives and the NDP had flipped, with the Conservatives now in the lead.

Facing voter discontent, the NDP also found itself fending off a challenger on the left. The BC Green Party also had a new leader, Lowan, who campaigned on a populist message of “fighting the oligarchs” and taxing wealth.

The party was buoyed by a historic Green win in the Vancouver election just one week ago with the election of Pete Fry as mayor, and Lowan presented the party as a viable choice for disaffected NDP voters who wanted to see more action on issues like the environment, Indigenous rights and inequality.

Lowan, a climate activist born in Saanich, swept into leadership after Sonia Furstenau resigned as leader following her defeat two years ago in the riding of Victoria-Beacon Hill.

On Friday Eby insisted he had no regrets about calling the election early.

“The election call was necessary,” he said. “The legislature was not working and could not work to deliver these big swings.”

“There were 13 times the Conservatives tried to collapse the government,” Eby said. “The whole focus was keeping government going instead of delivering for British Columbians.”

The Conservatives’ promises included accelerating economic growth, cutting income taxes, maintaining services and repealing the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.

With files from Andrew MacLeod, Isaac Phan Nay, Jen St. Denis and Zoë Yunker.