Canada’s Only Social-Democratic Government Has Been Decisively Reelected in British Columbia
British Columbia has historically been dominated by right-wing governments, so last weekend’s overwhelming New Democratic Party win is a significant moment. John Horgan, the first two-term NDP premier in the province's history, needs to set out a more ambitious agenda in his second term.
New Democratic Party premier John Horgan speaking in Comox, British Columbia, 2017. (BC NDP / Flickr)
British Columbia remains the only province in Canada governed by the New Democratic Party (NDP), after the social democrats won a decisive election on Saturday, October 24. Even with several ridings too close to call, and hundreds of thousands of mail-in votes still to be counted, the NDP’s lead is insurmountable, with the party leading or elected in fifty-five ridings, nearly double the BC Liberals’ twenty-nine.
NDP premier John Horgan called the snap election in order to capitalize on a near-consensus view that his government has managed COVID-19 better than most other jurisdictions in North America, with a total of 256 deaths. The NDP rode the wave of approval for their handling of the pandemic and presented their government as prudent, competent, compassionate managers, defeating a BC Liberal adversary weakened by a lack of corporate funding, internal divisions, and a dull and uninspiring leader in Andrew Wilkinson.
Relief From Right-Wing Dominance
With conservative and right-wing parties dominating at the provincial level across Canada, the results are a welcome relief. The Liberals, the latest iteration of the liberal-conservative right-wing coalition that traditionally dominates BC politics, ran a campaign almost entirely devoid of substantive policy proposals and focused on fearmongering about homeless camps, drug users, and street crime.
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