BC Conservative voters welcomed Lorne Doerkson and would not have backed the party under its previous full-time leaders. 

Vancouver, BC [October 26, 2026] – The snap election that very few people wanted ended with a resounding majority for the Conservative Party of British Columbia and what appears to be the lowest voter turnout in this century (48%).

A majority government became attainable for an opposition party that received about 49,000 fewer votes than two years ago, because the governing party—the BC New Democratic Party (NDP)—saw its number of total votes fall by more than 273,000.

In our “Exit Poll”, almost half of voters who took part in the provincial election (48%) tell us they decided who they would vote for before Premier and BC NDP leader David Eby triggered the election on September 22. Smaller proportions of voters settled on a candidate or party before the televised debate on October 14 (22%) or after its conclusion (19%).

More than half of BC NDP voters (56%) figured out their choice before the election was called, compared to 48% of Conservative Party of BC voters and 31% of BC Green Party voters. There was a bit of movement in the final stages of the campaign. At a time when Eby pleaded with BC Green voters to support his party and stop a BC Conservative government, almost one-in-four BC Green voters (24%) made the decision to cast their ballot for the party led by Emily Lowan.

A look at the motivations of voters shows that a party’s ideas and policies was the biggest mover (44%), followed by the party’s leader (24%), desire for change (15%), the party’s candidate in the riding (10%), desire for stability (9%) and disgust with other contending candidates (7%).

The numbers look very similar for BC Conservative and BC NDP voters on two motivators: ideas and policies (43% and 46% respectively) and the party’s leader (21% and 23% respectively). However, while 12% of BC NDP voters were primarily moved by a desire for stability, almost one-in-four BC Conservative voters (23%) focused on a desire for change. The Green Party—which reached double-digits in voting percentages—is very different. Equal proportions of its voters were motivated by the party’s ideas and policies (40%) and its leader (also 40%).

Half of voters in British Columbia (50%) describe the campaign of the Conservative Party of BC as “very positive” or “moderately positive”. This result is three points higher than the assessment of the BC NDP campaign (47%) and one point lower than the review for the BC Greens (51%).

Efforts to portray BC Conservative leader and premier-designate Lorne Doerkson as a steady and calm presence after months of mayhem certainly paid off. Only 31% of voters in British Columbia say they would have cast a ballot for the BC Conservatives under John Rustad and just 25% say they would have done the same had Kerry-Lynne Findlay remained as leader. Among voters who backed BC Conservative candidates, the proportions rise to 43% and 53% respectively. There is simply no way for the BC Conservatives to come within grasp of a majority government with these former leaders at the helm.

Across British Columbia, voters are significantly more likely to say that taxation was a “very important” issue when they decided which party to vote for (47%) than public transportation projects (29%), the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) (27%), automobile insurance (26%) or sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) in schools (25%).

Culture wars may attract views on social media, but the province’s voters who ended up supporting the BC Conservatives were not particularly amused. Fewer than three-in-ten of them say DRIPA (28%), public transportation projects (27%), automobile insurance (25%) or SOGI (24%) were “very important” as they pondered their options in this provincial election. Taxation was the undisputed main topic, at 57%. Echoing the 1992 U.S. Presidential Campaign, whose anthem “Don’t Stop” by Fleetwood Mac played during Doerkson’s final campaign appearances, this was a campaign won on the economy.

Almost half of voters across British Columbia (48%) and Metro Vancouver (49%) say they are happy with the outcome of the provincial election: a majority for the BC Conservatives. Roughly the same proportion (47%) say they would have liked to see other provincial party leaders—and not just Eby, Doerkson and Lowan—on the televised debate. What the future holds for Centre BC and OneBC, parties that managed to get 2% of the vote each running in about a third of all constituencies, remains to be seen.

As the BC NDP ponders its future, British Columbians are divided on whether it should consider a formal merger with the BC Greens into a single provincial political party: 43% agree with this idea, while 38% disagree. Among BC NDP and BC Green voters in the last election, support for a unified centre-left party reaches 66% and 60% respectively.

More than a quarter of a million BC NDP voters from 2024 evidently felt unmotivated by the campaign. The viability of a party that enters the opposition benches for the first time since 2017 hinges on reconnecting with British Columbians who may have developed an affinity in the 2020 pandemic ballot, but who were clearly dumbfounded by an election call two years ahead of schedule.

Find our data tables here.

Methodology: Results are based on an online study conducted on October 24 and October 25, 2026, among 601 British Columbia adults who voted in the 2026 provincial election. The margin of error—which measures sample variability—is +/- 4.0 percentage points, nineteen times out of twenty.

For more information on this poll, please contact:
Mario Canseco, President, Research Co.
778.929.0490
[e] mario.canseco@researchco.ca