B.C. Conservatives gain a seat, but two ridings are headed for judicial recounts

VICTORIA — The B.C. Conservatives have gained another seat after the final count of votes in the October provincial election, but judicial recounts loom in two ridings due to the narrowness of their margins.

Conservative candidate David Xie reeled in NDP incumbent Paul Choi in Burnaby South-Metrotown, overcoming Choi’s 66-vote lead heading into the final count to win by 64 votes.

The final count across the 93 ridings in the province included about 150,000 mail-in, phone and absentee ballots, while the narrowness of Choi’s previous lead also required an automatic recount in Burnaby South-Metrotown.

The only other riding where an automatic recount was required because the margin was fewer than 100 votes before the final tally was Ladysmith-Oceanside, where NDP incumbent Stephanie Higginson prevailed by 50 votes after the recount and final tally.

But Higginson’s margin over Conservative Kris McNichol falls within the threshold for a mandatory judicial recount, conducted by a Supreme Court justice if the difference between the first two candidates is less than 1/500 of all ballots considered.

Also heading for a judicial recount is Kelowna-Centre, where Conservative Kristina Loewen finished 43 votes ahead of New Democrat Loyal Wooldridge after the final count.

It’s the second consecutive election requiring a judicial recount in Kelowna Centre, after one was required to confirm Loewen’s victory over Wooldridge in 2024.

As the tally stands, the Conservatives have 64 seats, the NDP 27 and the Greens two.

Conservative candidates took 47.4 per cent of the popular vote compared with the NDP’s 37.6 per cent and the Greens’ 11.2 per cent.

It is rare for a judicial recount to change a result in B.C., but in 2009, Independent Vicki Huntington bounced back from a two-vote deficit to win in Delta South by 32 votes.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2026.

— With files by Chuck Chiang in Vancouver