Saturday October 19, 2024 | VICTORIA, BC [Posted 12:26 pm | Last update 2:21 pm]
BC ELECTION DAY
Election day coverage by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Your 28-day voter’s guide for BC Election 2024
As much as the heavy atmospheric river rainfall today is restoring green lawns and replenishing forest watersheds the BC Greens are hoping to politically Green the island in tonight’s BC Election results
Of course with BC Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau running head to head with BC NDP Grace Lore in Victoria-Beacon Hill, that is a key race to watch in tonight’s election results. Meanwhile, BC Conservative candidate Tim Thielmann thinks he may win in Victoria-Beacon Hill by the momentum of people wanting change.
The BC Green election night event will be held in downtown Victoria this evening.
All voting places across BC opened at 8 am this morning and will close at 8 pm. [Elections BC voter information page]
Heading into tonight’s results:
Here’s the BC Green landscape for tonight in the eight Greater-Victoria area (capital region) provincial ridings:
- BC Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau relocated from Cowichan Valley to the downtown Victoria-Beacon Hill riding earlier this year; Fairfield is her original family home and she may well bring home the BC Green victory she’s hoping for. She hopes to return to the BC Legislative Assembly with at least a handful of BC Green MLAs for some hard work over the next four years.
- In Esquimalt-Colwood health-care advocate Camille Currie is hoping to win for the BC Greens there tonight. This is her second run in provincial politics, the first being in the Langford-Juan de Fuca by-election in 2023. But she’s got a battle on her hands against BC Conservative candidate John Wilson who has no political experience but lots of connections in business throughout the region. The BC NDP might have won this riding if Mitzi Dean had run for a third term; while Darlene Rotchford has represented her party well, being a new candidate late into the game may not produce a BC NDP win there tonight.
- In Victoria-Swan Lake there is Green hope to turn over the riding from being long-held by the BC NDP. For several elections now, Christina Winter has knocked on a lot of doors throughout the riding (including parts of both Victoria and Saanich) on behalf of BC Greens. She’s out there again in the rain today, getting out the vote. She has more name recognition and political depth than Nina Krieger (BC NDP) and Tim Taylor (BC Conservative).
- In Saanich South the trajectory will have been steep against a long-time BC NDP incumbent, but Ned Taylor has keep BC Green on the map there throughout the campaign. This riding could turn BC Conservative blue under Adam Kubel tonight (even though he’s new) as Lana Popham is vying for a fifth term for the BC NDP and that might just be too much.
- Juan de Fuca-Malahat is a key riding to watch for BC Green vote results tonight. With strong long-time Sooke support, David Evans hopes to pull off a BC Green victory over two strong competitors. This is the region where BC NDP roots are deep (former Premier John Horgan’s old riding) where Sooke municipal councillor Dana Lajeunesse is the candidate and the BC Conservatives have found a strong base of frustration about how government has been run the last seven years in BC which Marina Sapozhnikov could capitalize on within a blue wave tonight.
- Langford-Highlands will be pretty much a two-way race tonight between BC NDP (Ravi Parmar) and BC Conservatives (Mike Harris) but BC Green candidate Erin Cassels has put her party on the map for future party depth there in the future.
- BC Green Party deputy leader Dr Lisa Gunderson is running in Oak Bay-Gordon Head where winning vote results are likely to swing either to BC NDP under Diana Gibson or BC Conservative with Stephen Andrew (who was oddly enough endorsed by former BC Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver).
- Saanich North and the Islands is a three-way race of titans. A lot of wealthy voters have been exposed to the offerings of all three parties with candidates who have high-level government and legal careers in their portfolios. It’s anyone’s guess as to the winner there: Rob Botterell (BC Green), or David Busch (BC Conservative), or Sarah Riddell (BC NDP).
Election prediction:
On October 16, Island Social Trends has predicted a slim BC NDP majority result tonight (about 51 seats), with a strong BC Conservative opposition (about 34 seats), and as many as five BC Greens plus one or two independents. [See: Who’s gonna win BC Election 2024?]
Today’s heavy rainfall:
The steady heavy rainfall called an atmospheric river has been virtually non-stop all day October 19, with the same in the forecast for tomorrow.
Environnment Canada’s hourly forecast for Victoria shows 100% rain for every hour of October 19.
This amount of rain is possibly a deterrent to some casual or uncertain voters.
===== RELATED:
- Election Night Results – visit the BC Election 2024 News Section
- Election day: where you can vote in the west shore on Oct 19 (October 19, 2024)
- Who’s gonna win BC Election 2024? (October 16, 2024)
- BC Election 2024: advance voting on now for six days (October 10, 2024)
- Six days of advance voting in BC Election 2024 (October 3, 2024)
- BC NDP candidate Ravi Parmar on the Langford-Highlands campaign trail (September 29, 2024)
- NEWS SECTIONS: POLITICS | VANCOUVER ISLAND | BC ELECTION 2024