Record low turnout in B.C. election, dropping below half for first time

The vote count in British Columbia’s election on Saturday produced a massive majority for the B.C. Conservatives, but it’s also revealing other trends.

Here’s a closer look at the numbers, based on preliminary results from Elections BC.

TURNOUT PLUNGES TO RECORD LOW

The early election saw preliminary turnout drop to 1,798,990, down about 14.7 per cent from the 2024 election when 2,109,658 people voted.

Turnout was 48.1 per cent, a record low for B.C. since at least 1949, when suffrage was extended to Indigenous people and some previously excluded ethnic groups.

It is also the first time that turnout has dropped below half, although the 2020 pandemic election came close at 53.9 per cent.

Turnout has broadly been declining at B.C. elections since the 1980s when it sometimes topped 75 per cent.

VOTE SPLITTING WORKED BOTH WAYS

The potential for vote splitting helping the Conservatives was raised by the NDP during the campaign’s final stages and Leader David Eby appealed for the votes of Green supporters.

But while vote splitting may have been a factor in some ridings, it wasn’t enough to affect the outcome of a Conservative majority, and in some cases appears to have worked in the NDP’s favour.

Preliminary results show Conservative candidates so far elected or leading in at least 10 ridings where the Green vote exceeds the Conservative margin over the NDP.

For example, in Cowichan Valley the Conservatives have a 151-vote lead over the NDP, while the Green candidate received 3,750 votes.

In another Vancouver Island riding, Juan De Fuca-Malahat, the Conservatives are leading the NDP by 768 votes. The Greens there received 3,880 votes.

But vote-splitting also favoured the NDP in at least four seats where their lead over the Conservatives is smaller than the votes received by right-of-centre OneBC or CentreBC.

For instance, the NDP lead over the Conservatives in Burnaby East was 241 votes, while the OneBC candidate there received 523 votes.

In Courtenay-Comox, the NDP has a lead of 696 votes, while CentreBC’s candidate received 740 votes.

VOTES FOR BOTH MAIN PARTIES FELL

The B.C. Conservatives may have won a huge majority with more than 60 seats in the 93-riding legislature, but the party saw its vote drop compared with 2024 — although not nearly by as much as the NDP.

Preliminary results show the Conservatives received 862,317 votes, down about 5.4 per cent from 911,153 in 2024.

The NDP received 670,811 votes, compared with 944,579 in 2024, a massive drop of 30 per cent.

The Conservative vote share this election is about 48 per cent, compared with 37 per cent for the NDP.

The Greens meanwhile saw their vote count jump to 196,896, up about 14 per cent from 2024, and saw their vote share spike from 8.2 per cent to about 11 per cent.

NO MORE INDEPENDENTS

The legislature’s brief dalliance with Independent legislators appears to be over for now.

At dissolution, the legislature had 13 Independents, mostly disgruntled Conservatives who returned to the party fold in time for the election.

But there were also former Conservatives Jordan Kealy and Tara Armstrong. The Independent camp included OneBC’s Dallas Brodie and CentreBC’s Elenore Sturko, who were their parties’ sole legislators.

Kealy, who is facing a sexual assault charge that he denies, was the only incumbent legislator running without a party banner on Saturday and he was soundly defeated in Peace River North by Conservative Curtis Whitford.

Brodie receive just 4 per cent of the vote in Vancouver-Quilchena, which was won by the Conservatives’ Carson Binda, while Sturko fared only a little better, receiving 10.1 per cent of the vote in Surrey South, won easily by Conservative Megan Knight.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 26, 2026.

Canadian Press Staff, The Canadian Press