BC Election Results: Conservatives Lead in 65 Ridings in Early Count — But Not a Single Seat Is Decided Yet

Nobody has won anything yet in British Columbia — and that matters, because Saturday night's numbers look like a landslide and they are not. With the first ballot boxes counted, the BC Conservatives are leading in 65 of the province's 93 ridings, David Eby's NDP in 27, and the Greens in one. Elections BC has declared exactly zero seats.

What that means in plain terms is that the early count points hard in one direction, and the direction is against the premier who called this election. Eby gambled a 47-seat majority two years early. On the first boxes, voters look like they are taking that gamble away from him. But first boxes are first boxes: in most ridings only a handful are counted, and the ballots likeliest to move this race stay sealed until November.

So far 338,625 votes are tallied as of 8:43 p.m. Pacific on Saturday, per Elections BC's count tracked by BC Ballot. All 93 ridings have at least one box in — which sounds comprehensive until you read the small print. Eby himself leads Vancouver-Point Grey by 284 votes — with 4 of 70 boxes counted. Conservative leader Lorne Doerkson leads Cariboo-Chilcotin by 2,152 votes with 6 of 89 boxes in. Green leader Emily Lowan leads Saanich North and the Islands by 376 votes with 7 of 105 boxes counted, after trailing by six votes on the very first box. That swing inside a single riding tells you how early this count really is.

Where the map has already moved

Even so, the shape of the night is hard to miss. A candidate from a different party than in 2024 is leading in 29 ridings. The Lower Mainland is fully in — all 52 ridings — with the Conservatives ahead in 40, the NDP in 11, and OneBC in one. Surrey, the battleground both campaigns poured resources into, is breaking Conservative: Surrey City Centre, Surrey-Fleetwood, Surrey-Guildford and Surrey-Newton are all showing Conservative leads. In Vancouver, the Conservatives lead in Yaletown, Fraserview, Langara and Little Mountain, all seats the NDP won in 2024. Vancouver Island, by contrast, is split down the middle at eight ridings each.

Then there are the nail-biters. Burnaby South-Metrotown is separated by three votes. Abbotsford West by seven. Nechako Lakes by eight. Vancouver-Little Mountain by ten. Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows by twelve. A candidate can seek a recount where the lead is 100 votes or fewer, by October 28. More than one of these ridings could yet be decided by a judge, not a ballot box.

Why nobody should call it tonight

Caution is built into how British Columbia counts. Final Voting Day ballots cast at a voter's assigned voting place are counted by hand on election night — the snap campaign left too little time for electronic tabulators. But every vote-by-mail ballot waits for the final count, as do ballots cast away from a voter's assigned place. Unlike in 2024, no mail ballot is counted on election night. The final count runs November 6 to 10; the writs return November 18.

The leaders' own seats deserve the same caution. CentreBC leader Elenore Sturko trails in Surrey South, where Conservative Megan Knight leads by 542 votes with just 1 of 82 boxes counted. OneBC leader Dallas Brodie trails in Vancouver-Quilchena, where Conservative Carson Binda leads by 1,251 votes with 4 of 69 boxes in. If those leads hold, two party leaders lose their seats on the night their parties needed them most. One box and four boxes, though, are not a result. They are a hint.

The polls saw this coming — mostly

None of this shocks anyone who watched the final polls. Leger's October 20–22 survey had the Conservatives at 44 per cent, the NDP at 39, and the Greens at 13. Research Co.'s October 23 poll had it 44–40 with the Greens at 10. Mainstreet's September 30–October 1 survey put the Conservatives at 44.7 per cent against 37.2 for the NDP. The early count is tracking those polls closely. But polls are not results, and British Columbia has a recent history of counts that move as the boxes pile up. A five-point poll lead is a forecast, not a government.

So the honest headline splits down the middle: a Conservative wave on the early boxes, and a race that is officially, legally, not over. Eby stays premier through the count — Elections BC decides who is elected in each riding, and it does not name a premier. What to watch is whether the Conservative lead holds as more boxes report, and what the mail ballots do when opened in November. Anyone telling you on Saturday night who British Columbia's next premier is, is guessing. The boxes will tell us. Just not all of them tonight.

Sources

• BC election results 2026: live count — BC Ballot, tracking Elections BC's count, October 24, 2026
• Elections BC, 2026 provincial election results and Guide to Voting and Counting — Elections BC
• BC Election 2026: Final Poll Shows Conservatives Leading — Leger, October 2026
• Conservatives Extend Lead Over NDP in British Columbia — Research Co., October 23, 2026

Photo: The British Columbia Parliament Buildings in Victoria. Photo by Podzemnik, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons. (File photo — not from election night.)