On election day, NDP led in 46 districts, the Cons in 45 and the Greens in 2. NDP need 47 seats for a majority - but even with the current seats they can rule with the Greens as a minority.
Today, recounts started and will go on till Monday. After the first count at 1 PM Pacific, NDP lead grew in two district and they closed in on the Cons in one district. If this pattern holds, they might have a majority.
Too soon to say, but it is more likely now that it was a couple hours ago. Next recount update is at 4 PM Pacific.
I know this is very electoralism-heavy and might not matter to people outside the province/country. But this has been on my mind constantly for the past week.
The entire election has been a fiasco. The BC NDP, which is a neoliberal party way more right-wing than the federal NDP, shifted even more to the right during this campaign. I’m not going into everything they did, but it was bad. The Greens, in response, became a true left wing party. The Cons, which were a non-entity sprung up out of nowhere as a true force - a shame they are literally an alt-right and fascist one - anti-science, anti-homeless, anti-abortion, anti-indigenous, anti-immigration, anti-climate etc etc. If they wasn’t enough, the Liberals, which were the province’s traditional opposition party completely collapsed and folded into that Cons giving them massive support.
Just…fucking incredible.
The Greens won two seats but their leader lost hers. To me, an NDP minority propped up by the Greens would seem like a good outcome. But the way things have shaken out so far, a couple by-elections and the Cons could come into power.
So these late counts giving the NDP a more secure footing seems a good thing. Hopefully someone with more knowledge than me can weight in, though.
Didn't the Greens offer a coalition with the NDP last time in exchange for killing the Trans Mountain Pipeline, or something similar?