The 2026 B.C. election is over, but the results mark a historic low, with fewer than half of eligible voters casting a ballot.
According to Elections BC, preliminary figures show just 48 per cent of eligible voters participated, down about 10 percentage points from the 2024 provincial election.
For Stewart Prest, a political science lecturer at UBC, the record-low turnout reflects a campaign that failed to motivate many voters, particularly those who had previously supported the NDP.
“This is Mr. Eby’s low-turnout election to own, and this is going to be part of his legacy,” Prest said.
The NDP saw more than 270,000 fewer votes than it did in the 2024 election, a significant drop that suggests many of its previous supporters didn’t show up at the polls. By comparison, the Conservatives received about 49,000 fewer votes.
Prest says the party’s decision to call an election just two years after its previous majority appeared politically opportunistic to some voters. That, combined with a polarizing campaign, may have further alienated its own supporters. Some voters questioned why they were being asked to return to the polls before the government had delivered on key issues. He says the party’s failure to present a positive vision, particularly on issues such as housing affordability and jobs, may have further discouraged its own supporters.
Prest says the Conservatives’ victory was also shaped by voters frustrated with the NDP’s record and looking for a change in government.
For some Conservative voters, the early election call may have reinforced that frustration. After being asked to return to the polls just two years after the last election, some saw the vote as unnecessary and were motivated to send a message to the governing party, Prest says.
Prest says voters are more likely to participate when they believe their vote matters — and when governments deliver on issues such as housing affordability and jobs.
With turnout at a record low, the election raises questions about how political parties can reconnect with voters who no longer feel motivated to show up.
As Global tries to spin the NDP’s election loss to lower voter turnout, it wouldn’t have made a difference. People were tired of an ineffective gov’t.
Nobody votes anymore because Canadian politics is a disaster. When there is nobody worth voting for, why even vote?
Nobody believes you lying sons of bitches anymore. Mr. Conservative is screwing you idiots already
Who Cares. We got rid of the problem !!!
Best decision Eby ever made was to call that election.The NDP was a joke.Eby was another progressive leftist clown like Trudeau. Completely incompetent.
Everybody in B.C. is happy again ,except of course, the deadbeats and the F.N.
The low voter turnout was exacerbated by Election BC incompetence – I couldn’t vote because the station didn’t have the “required”envelopes Don Smith, DNV
Umm the municipal elections were a week before and that pissed people off and probably confused some people. Strange to not mention that at all.
How come none of the news articles are talking about the mail in ballots, which have yet to be counted?
I feel like the defeat of the disastrous NDP has been a little too easy, that they have planned to steal back the election via defrauding of these, and the media is playing dumb so as to garner better ratings when that occurs.