Eleven hectic days after Premier David Eby announced a snap election, British Columbians in all 93 ridings now know who will be on their ballots come election day.
On Saturday night, Elections BC released the final province-wide list of candidates.
Of the five major parties, only the BC Conservatives were able to nominate someone in every single riding. The BC NDP were a close second with 92 candidates, only falling short of the agency’s requirements due to paperwork trouble in Peace River North.
With the unexpected nature of the snap election, both the BC NDP and the BC Conservatives had to look to the past to round out their slate. The New Democrats are re-running six former MLAs who were defeated in 2024 — Pam Alexis, Roly Russell, Kelli Paddon, Andrew Mercier, Henry Yao, and Jinny Sims.
The BC Conservatives are fielding six candidates who had initially signed up to be BC United candidates in 2024 before Kevin Falcon shut the party down — Pavneet Singh, Joshua Dahling, Tracy St. Claire, Jaime Stein, Kevin Acton, and Caroline Elliott.
The tight timeline to meet the 75-signature threshold and other requirements made it harder than usual for smaller parties to get candidates on the ballot. Despite the pressure, the BC Greens managed to find and nominate 73 candidates across the province, an increase of four from the last provincial election. CentreBC and OneBC were less fortunate, only being able to field candidates in more than a third of ridings with 35 and 33 official candidates respectively.
These parties may not be polling on par with the New Democrats or the BC Conservatives, but their potential impact on the election cannot be overstated. In 2024, the BC NDP squeaked out the slimmest possible majority government by a margin of 22 votes in Surrey-Guildford. If 400 votes across three ridings went the other way, the BC Conservatives instead would have been the ones with a majority government.
Fears of a vote split are high on both sides. Last election, the messy collapse of BC United bruised egos and spurred disgruntled candidates to continue their candidacies as independents. In Vernon-Lumby and Richmond-Steveston, Kevin Acton and Jackie Lee won enough of the vote to send incumbent BC NDP MLAs in both ridings back to Victoria. Elsewhere in the Okanagan, Tracy St. Claire and Michael Humer nearly cost the BC Conservatives Penticton-Summerland and Kelowna Centre.
Free enterprise may have avoided the apocalyptic scenario where the BC Conservatives and CentreBC would have each fielded full slates, but the right is still more fragmented than last time. CentreBC soldiers on under the leadership of Elenore Sturko and could pull votes from moderate voters disenchanted with both the New Democrats and the BC Conservatives, while OneBC could threaten the BC Conservatives on the right in the Fraser Valley and the Interior.
The BC NDP should not breathe easy either. The ability of the BC Greens to nominate more candidates than 2024, despite the abrupt election call, is a sign of increasing organizational capacity following Emily Lowan’s triumph in last year’s leadership race. In 2024, the BC NDP nearly lost ridings like Cowichan Valley and Juan de Fuca-Malahat at the southern end of Vancouver Island thanks to a strong Green vote. This year, the threat could be even more amplified.
Lowan is running on a platform to the left of past leaders of the BC Greens. The party is also fielding candidates in every Metro Vancouver riding north of the Fraser River. If left-wing discontent coalesces behind them, the BC NDP could find themselves in real races in Victoria-Beacon Hill and Victoria-Swan Lake, along with coming under heavy pressure in urban Lower Mainland seats like Surrey-Guildford and Vancouver-Langara. Further complicating BC NDP chances in both aforementioned ridings is the lack of a OneBC candidate who would otherwise siphon off Conservative votes.
In eight ridings, residents will be spoiled for choice. The voters of Kootenay-Rockies, North Vancouver-Seymour, Salmon Arm-Shuswap, Vancouver-South Granville, Vancouver-Quilchena, and three ridings in battleground Surrey (Cloverdale, Fleetwood, White Rock) will have candidates from all five major parties on the ballot.
Other ridings will have a less diverse array of options. Chilliwack-Cultus Lake and Richmond-Bridgeport will both only have candidates from the BC NDP and the BC Conservatives on the ballot. Peace River North has the strangest configuration of all — a fight between BC Conservative candidate Curtis Whitford and incumbent independent MLA Jordan Kealy, with no other candidate in the race.
The race to nominate candidates may be over, but the most chaotic election in recent provincial history has only just begun. And in a province as polarized as British Columbia, anything could tip the balance.
Find out who’s on the ballot in your riding here.
Hugh Chan is an International Relations student at the University of British Columbia who sometimes moonlights as a political reporter.
