Why you should vote: How just 189 votes defeated the B.C. government in 2017

Vaughn Palmer: Voting always matters, but more so in this election than in any other

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Published Oct 18, 2024  •  4 minute read

B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad, left, and B.C. NDP Leader David Eby, right. Photo by DARRYL DYCK /THE CANADIAN PRESS

VICTORIA — The 2017 B.C. election provides a persuasive example of how a few votes, cast in just one place, can change political history and reshape the province.

The B.C. Liberals went into that election with reasonable expectations of winning another term, having governed for 16 years.

Their leader, Premier Christy Clark, had won the previous election handily, confounding the expectations of most pollsters and pundits alike.

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The B.C. New Democrats, beaten four times in a row, were far from confident about turning things around.

Their leader, John Horgan, had been reluctant to take the job when it came open in 2014. Even after taking it, he’d offered in a moment of frustration to step aside for an ambitious upstart named David Eby.

But all that was mere prelude when the votes came in on election night, delivering the closest finish in modern times.

The B.C. Liberals and NDP were virtually tied in the popular vote.

More critically, the B.C. Liberals lost their legislative majority by one seat. And they lost that one seat, Courtenay-Comox, to the NDP by a mere 189 votes.

Had Clark managed to eke out another 190 votes there, she could have held on to her majority and to government.

Instead, she found herself urging Lt. Gov. Judith Guichon to call a second election to resolve the standoff in the legislature.

Guichon ignored the advice and instead called on Horgan. Did he have the confidence of the house? Could he form a government?

Horgan answered “yes” to both questions, relying on the strength of a power-sharing agreement with the Green party.

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Together the two had 44 of the 87 seats in the legislature, a bare majority.

With Guichon’s support, Horgan proceeded to form an NDP government, relying on the votes of the Greens when necessary.

The new government proceeded to abolish bridge tolls and medicare premiums. There were annual increases in the carbon tax, a “speculation tax” on vacant homes, and a tax on employers to make up for the loss of revenue from medicare premiums.

The New Democrats transformed provincial politics by outlawing big money donations, capping the cash flow, and replacing it with public funding.

Later came no-fault auto insurance, partial decriminalization of drugs, and an end to single-family zoning in many municipalities.

Whether it be child care, labour laws or environmental regulation, the NDP made a public policy revolution that continues to this day.

And it all started with a 189-vote margin in one riding seven years ago.

The Courtenay-Comox result has become to go-to example for why voting matters, replacing what happened in Atlin riding in 1979.

New Democrat Al Passarell won that seat by one vote. The losing Social Credit incumbent later admitted that he and his wife had neglected to vote.

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But the Atlin result, embarrassing as it was for the Socreds, didn’t mean a change of government. The Socreds still won another term.

B.C. electoral history provides other examples of a few votes making a lot of difference.

Premier Dave Barrett lost his own seat in the legislature by a mere 18 votes in the same 1975 provincial election where his New Democrats were defeated by the revived Social Credit party.

Social Credit Leader Grace McCarthy lost a 1994 byelection in Matsqui to Mike de Jong by 42 votes.

The result marked the beginning of de Jong’s career in politics and the last gasp for Social Credit.

This time out, more than one million ballots have been cast in the advance polls.

Another million, maybe more, should vote today, presuming they are sufficiently determined to make it through the deluge from the anticipated atmospheric river.

Postelection surveys have found that many who didn’t vote say they meant to, they really did, but they were too busy.

Others say they didn’t vote because voting wouldn’t make a difference.

Here in B.C., even the slightest act of paying attention would disclose significant differences between the two major parties.

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Yes, B.C. politicians and their respective supporters tend to exaggerate: “Police state versus people’s republic — the choice is yours.”

But even discounting for the campaign rhetoric, this time the differences are deep, bitter and personal.

The campaign stakes also include David Eby, seeking an unprecedented third term for the NDP.

Standing in his way are the Conservatives, a party that barely existed two years ago, and a leader, John Rustad, who languished in relative obscurity in the legislature for most of 20 years.

The Green party is seeking to win at least the two seats necessary to retain official status.

Plus, there’s a group of independent candidates, MLAs up to the day when the house was dissolved for the election, seeking a breakthrough for the newly unaffiliated.

Most opinion polls suggest that the New Democrats are ahead. One major pollster has the Conservatives in first.

Yet there’s enough margin of error in the lot of them to suggest that a few votes either way, cast in the right places, could again make political history.

Voting always matters.

But in the 10 provincial elections I’ve covered, voting has never mattered more.

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