The New Democratic Party rolled the dice—and found out the electorate doesn’t care for games.

In what many will see as a rebuke to an NDP gambit to prosper at the polls with its main opponent in disarray, British Columbians overwhelmingly rejected the governing party in favour of the BC Conservatives, who were projected to win their first majority in nearly a century.

Lorne Doerkson will become the new BC premier, replacing David Eby, who announced he intends to resign as NDP leader after giving his party time to select an interim leader.

As of this writing just before midnight Saturday, the BC Conservative Party was leading or elected in 64 of the province’s 93 ridings. 

“We are going to super-charge British Columbia,” Doerkson, who secured his Cariboo-Chilcotin seat, told his excited supporters.

The New Democrats won 27 seats, and the Greens won two, including Saanich North and the Islands, won by leader Emily Lowan.

The BC Conservatives, who just weeks ago seemed a feeble, disorganized opponent, had secured 48.06% of the provincial vote; the NDP had 37.37%; and the Greens had 10.97% of the counted vote.

“I know this is a tough night for many of our candidates,” Eby said in an email to his candidates and supporters.

“We’ve lost some amazing MLAs, and their communities have lost champions.”

They've also lost power after nine years at the helm in Victoria.

That wasn’t something many would have predicted just a few short months ago, when the BC Conservatives were a party in chaos, with a dozen MLAs leaving or banished from the party.

The BC Conservatives didn’t even have a leader for a brief time after Eby called a snap election on Sept. 22. Kerry-Lynne Findlay replaced the embattled John Rustad and, like her predecessor, presided over a party decaying into infighting. 

Shortly after the election call, Doerkson became interim leader, MLAs who had quit rejoined the Conservatives, and the party began to strike a chord with a large segment of BC voters, who may have soured on the election call and the NDP’s fiscal record.

When Eby succeeded John Horgan as premier in 2022, he inherited a budget surplus, which has since been reduced to a projected $13 billion deficit.

The NDP held five of their seven ridings in Greater Victoria, with the area’s eighth, Saanich North and the Islands, remaining Green and going to Lowan.

Conservative Cathie Ounsted defeated Richard Zussman and Green candidate Lisa Lapointe in Saanich South.

Conservative Mike Hicks was leading NDP incumbent Dana Lajeunesse in a tight race in Juan de Fuca-Malahat.

Projected winners/leaders in Greater Victoria
‍
•  Saanich North and the Islands: Emily Lowan, Green Party

•  Saanich South: Cathie Ounsted, BC Conservatives

•  Victoria-Beacon Hill: Grace Lore, NDP

•  Victoria-Swan Lake: Nina Krieger, NDP

•  Esquimalt-Colwood: Darlene Rotchford, NDP

•  Oak Bay-Gordon Head: Diana Gibson, NDP

•  Langford-Highlands: Ravi Parmar, NDP

•  Juan de Fuca-Malahat: Mike Hicks (leading)