Parties leaders set for a five-way race to B.C. election day
Published 4:25 pm Wednesday, September 23, 2026
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As the dust settles on the snap election call that will send British Columbians to the polls on Oct. 24, the teams are shuffling players and the race has begun.
Two out of the five parties with seats in the legislature have new leaders. Several prominent incumbent party cabinet members say they are bowing out of the race. And the B.C. Conservative Party seems to be quickly reassembling a formidable centre-right coalition.
It is now shaping up to be a five-way race.
Here are the major players and latest moves:
David Eby, who called the election two years into a four-year term, still leads the NDP.
Eby is a former activist lawyer who once headed the B.C. Civil Liberties Union and helped write a book about how to sue the police. But since his elevation to party leader in 2022, he has steered the NDP toward the centre.
He has rescinded the consumer carbon tax, ended the drug decriminalization pilot, embraced liquefied natural gas development and pledged to amend the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.
Since announcing a snap election, several high-profile cabinet members have said they will not run again. This includes Ravi Kahlon at health, Brenda Bailey at jobs, Kelly Greene at emergency management and Lana Popham at agriculture.
And while Eby says the election is needed to gain public support for his government’s effort to fight back against U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, his opponents call the move a “cynical” ploy to capitalize on fractures in the B.C. Conservative Party.
The Conservative Party, meanwhile, is mending its recent ruptures.
After a scandal-plagued tenure of under four months in which the party nearly split in two, Kerry-Lynne Findlay finally relented and resigned on Sunday. The party board chose Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Lorne Doerkson to take over, someone seen as a mild-mannered stabilizer.
Doerkson is a former bareback rodeo rider and businessperson. He was also a longtime publisher for newspapers owned by Black Press, including the Williams Lake Tribune.
Once the party appointed Doerkson, recent defectors came flooding back. This includes several who joined CentreBC just days earlier.
Of a group of eight sitting MLAs who joined CentreBC on Friday, all but Elenore Sturko, the incumbent in Surrey-Cloverdale, have now rejoined the Conservative Party as candidates.
Sturko remains, and now leads that party, while CentreBC fields candidates in other ridings. This includes former Green Party leader Andrew Weaver, who was announced as the CentreBC candidate for Oak Bay-Gordonhead on Wednesday.
Unlike those who rejoined the Conservatives, Sturko left the Tories before Findlay took over, kicked out by former leader John Rustad.
Sturko has since called herself “politically homeless” as someone who is a fiscal and public safety conservative, but a social liberal.
Several other MLAs booted before Findlay took over are not back either. This includes Dallas Brodie, who leads the One BC party. She is now joined in that party by Brent Chapman, the incumbent for Surrey South, and Findlay’s husband. Chapman left for One BC after Findlay resigned as Conservative leader.
One BC party now appears to be mounting a challenge to the Conservatives from the right, while CentreBC is pushing from the left.
Even farther to the left side of the political spectrum is the B.C. Greens. Party Leader Emily Lowan is running in the Saanich North and the Islands riding, a seat being vacated by Rob Botterell. The Green Party has held that seat since 2017, giving Lowan her surest path to the legislature.
Lowan, a 25-year-old political activist, has brought the energy — and social media acumen — of youth to the party, but she is as-yet-untested in a provincial race.
Candidate nominations are now coming thick and fast from all the parties. On Oct. 24, the province will find out if Premier David Eby’s all-in gamble pays off, or sinks his leadership.