Geoff Russ: B.C. Conservatives win towering majority in rebuke of power-hungry Eby

B.C. Conservative interim Leader Lorne Doerkson speaks during the B.C. election provincial leaders' debate in Vancouver, B.C., on Wednesday, Oct, 14, 2026. Ethan Cairns/BC Broadcast Consortium Photo by Ethan Cairns /BC Broadcast Consortium

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The Conservative Party of B.C. owes outgoing NDP premier David Eby an eternal debt of gratitude, not for his governance, but for saving their movement and paving the way for the party to win a commanding majority Saturday night. The Conservatives are projected to win 62 seats to the NDP’s 29 as of 9  p.m. local time.

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In September, Eby looked at a bitterly divided and demoralized Conservative opposition. He liked what he saw, and decided to call an election two years ahead of schedule. His own NDP caucus was rebellious, with many MLAs fed up with his approach to “reconciliation,” among other files. One NDP candidate even confessed that Eby’s razor-thin majority before the election meant every MLA held a potential veto over the premier.  

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The NDP leader decided he would show everyone who the boss was, and went to the voters early. In effect, British Columbians were made into pawns in the premier’s performance review. By doing so, he seems to have solved nearly everybody’s problems except his. 

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Now, instead of a strengthened NDP majority, there will be a Conservative majority when the legislature resumes business in Victoria.  

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The Canadian right badly needed this win. After the 2025 federal election, many Conservatives remain haunted by their shattering defeat at the hands of Mark Carney’s Liberals. This came after they had already been denied the chance to deliver Justin Trudeau a well-deserved reckoning after he stepped down before facing voters a fourth time.  

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Young Conservative activists, clever staffers and loyal volunteers must have wondered whether their efforts would ever be rewarded. There was always another week of knocking on doors, manufacturing hope for a favourable poll and coming up with explanations to cope with the latest setbacks. People can only take so many defeats before it all becomes too much. Not this time, however.  

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Two days before Eby called the early election, then-Conservative leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay resigned after her leadership had sent poll numbers into a nosedive and driven MLAs out of caucus. Interim leader Lorne Doerkson was tapped to lead the chaotic Conservatives into the contest. Within 48 hours, nearly all recently departed MLAs returned to the fold, and the Conservatives were more or less united. 

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Eby forced them up against the wall, and the Conservatives became a tenacious fighting force, shelving their bickering to rally around their new leader. A few fringe third-party candidates continued to air their personal grievances, but it made little difference. Their former colleagues discovered that swallowing their pride and working together with discipline was preferable to further infighting. As many pundits like to write, the Conservatives saw an opportunity, and “pounced.”  

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Experienced organizers and frustrated federal talent converged on the West Coast. Former Poilievre staffers and local veterans helped unite the movement in B.C. around defeating the NDP.