Photo courtesy Canadian Press
Election 2020

NDP projected to form majority government in B.C.

Oct 24, 2020 | 9:31 PM

PRINCE GEORGE — CKPG Today is projecting a majority NDP government.

The NDP is currently elected or leading in 54 ridings. The BC Liberals are currently currently elected or leading in 30 ridings and the BC Greens are currently elected or leading in three ridings.

John Horgan called a snap election on Sept. 21 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As of Friday morning, Elections BC said that about 478,900 vote-by-mail packages had been returned, representing about 66 per cent of all mail-in packages requested and issued to date.

Despite the large number of mail in ballots, we do not believe there are enough to stop the NDP from forming a majority.

When the writ was dropped last month, the NDP and Liberals were tied with 41 seats in the legislature, the Greens had two seats, another two were independent, and one seat was vacant.

Forty-four seats are needed by a party to form a majority government.

Despite the NDP’s success, Liberal Shirley Bond is cruising to victory in Prince George-Valemount. With 25 of 89 polls reporting, Bond has 1,497 votes. The NDP’s Laura Parent is second with 552, Mackenzie Kerr of the BC Greens is third with 358 and Sean Robson of the BC Libertarian’s has 77.

In Prince George-Mackenzie, incumbent Liberal Mike Morris is poised to be reelected with 2,029 votes, the NDP’s Joan Atkinson has 1,339, Catharine Kendall has 518, Dee Kranz of the Christian Heritage Party has 87 and Libertarian Raymond Rodgers has 85.