B.C. Election: A landslide, yes, but here are a few tight ones to watch

Polls are closed but there are still several steps left in certifying the 2026 B.C. election results. Photo by Arlen Redekop /PNG

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The B.C. election is anything but a toss-up, with Lorne Doerkson’s Conservatives surging to a convincing supermajority across the province.

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However, there are a few races hanging in the balance after the initial count, with mail-in and absentee ballots still to be counted.

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In the 2024 election, mail-in ballots accounted for 67,670 of the 2,105,341 votes cast, or about three per cent. That means races with small margins could still see a flip, though history shows such reversals are rare. How many mail-in ballots were cast in this election will be known after the final count scheduled for Nov. 6.

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After that final tally, a judicial recount is triggered when the margin of victory is less than 1/500th, or 0.2 per cent, of all ballots. So far, none of the races in B.C. are below that threshold, but a few are pretty close.

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Let’s take a look at the three closest ridings in the 2026 provincial election:

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Burnaby South–Metrotown

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The race between the NDP’s Paul Choi and Conservative David Xie is close enough that it will require a final count including mail-in ballots to be confirmed.

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With all election-night polls counted, Choi has a 66-vote lead over Xie. That equates to about 0.5 per cent of all votes cast.

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The Conservatives have already picked up two seats in Burnaby, an NDP stronghold for half a century, so confirming Choi’s victory would be important to the NDP Opposition.

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Cowichan Valley

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The blue wave hit another traditional NDP territory, Vancouver Island, in Saturday’s election — but two of them are tight after the initial count.

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The Conservatives picked up Cowichan Valley, but Conservative Bert Chen had just 150 more votes than NDP incumbent Debra Toporowski. That’s about 0.58 per cent of votes cast so far.

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Ladysmith–Oceanside

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This is the closest of all, and it affects another narrow NDP loss on election night.

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Conservative Kris McNichol edged NDP incumbent Stephanie Higginson by 89 votes — which, at just under 0.3 per cent of votes cast, is just a tick above the automatic recount threshold.

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… And what happens next

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Where there is a close margin of victory, the district electoral officer must do a recount by hand.

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That includes ballots cast in other ridings, because voters are allowed to vote in any B.C. riding, not just their home riding. Those ballots have to be repatriated for the hand count, which can result in a delay to the final count.

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A hand count has strict rules and must be overseen by the district electoral officer or a delegated election official, and there must be at least one other election official present. The candidates and one of their representatives can also be present, but no one else unless approved by the district electoral officer.

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A voter, candidate, candidate representative or district electoral officer can apply for a judicial recount, but only in the six days after the declaration of the final count. The recount is triggered automatically if the vote difference is below 0.2 per cent.