Westshore election results

NDP win 2 local ridings, but 3rd is BC's closest race

Juan de Fuca — Malahat is too close to call; Lajeunesse leads by just 23

Photos via candidate Instagrams.

NDP – Dana Lajeunesse: 8,943 votes (38.5%)

Conservative – Marina Sapozhnikov: 8,920 (38.4%)

Green – David Evans: 5,346 (23.0%)

Juan de Fuca Malahat teetered between the NDP and Conservatives, but as the night wore on, but the initial count had the NDP retaining the riding. As of Sunday's Elections BC update the BC NDP’s Dana Lajeunesse, a Sooke councillor, had 8,943 votes. The BC Conservatives’ Marina Sapozhnikov, a Cobble Hill doctor, had 8,920. The narrow result will spark a hand-counted recount, which will happen mainly on Oct 26-28.

The riding is a new one created out of the more rural part of John Horgan's oversized longtime riding and the southern section of the former Cowichan riding. Both Horgan and Ravi Parmar (who ran in the other spinoff, Langford-Highlands) had dominated the previous riding, and the NDP were expected to hold this new spinoff albeit more narrowly.

All results under 100 go to automatic recounts, which will also include additional ballots such as those mailed after advanced voting dates or filled out on paper at election-day voting stations outside the actual riding and then sent over to the proper riding. Those ballots get counted in every riding, there just aren't enough to affect the results in most ridings. The process is set to begin Oct. 26 as part of final counts. Automatic recounts will happen in this and one other riding: Surrey – City Centre, which the NDP leads by 96 votes.

Pending these results, the NDP could finish with either 44, 45, or 46 seats. A majority is 47, though 48 is preferred because a Speaker with a limited voting role must be nominated. It's also possible that more ridings than these two could change; Surrey–Guildford is only a 102-vote Conservative lead, for instance.

Over social media, JDF-M Green candidate David Evans (who drew an estimated 5,346 votes) said “While the results weren’t what we hoped for, this campaign was about more than one election, it was about creating lasting change and that work continues.”

Evans had one of the Greens' best vote percentages in BC, despite coming third, and his colleagues Rob Botterell and Jeremy Valeriote may hold the balance of power in the Legislature after winning Saanich North & the Islands and Vancouver – Sea to Sky respectively.

Esquimalt – Colwood: Newcomer Rotchford holds seat for NDP

Photo: NDP website candidate page

NDP – Darlene Rotchford: 14,456 (51.1%)

Conservative – John Wilson: 8,333 (29.5%)

Green – Camille Currie: 5,485 (19.4%)

Esquimalt councillor Darlene Rotchford delivered a win that entrenched the riding’s status as a safe NDP seat, securing more votes than challengers John Wilson and Camille Currie combined.

“It’s been a wild ride,” Rotchford said, “It’s been a short run. Women can do it all, quite frankly.” [Rotchford has a 10-month-old child]. “I want to thank the other candidates in the riding. This is democracy and this is how it works.”  

Rotchford was subbed in as a candidate just six weeks ago after the decision not to run was made by incumbent MLA Mitzi Dean. Dean's troubled time as Minister of Children & Family Development ended with her removal from that role but she had intended to continue as MLA until health issues sparked her late-hour withdrawal.

Rotchford told The Westshore “Unfortunately, Mitzi was ill and unable to run and so we just hit the ground running to tell the people of Esquimalt why the NDP is the best option. We’re going to continue to work on affordability and the housing crisis and we’re going to fix health care. I come from health care so I can tell you we’re going to do it.”

Langford – Highlands: Easy win, as expected, for NDP's Parmar

Photo: Ravi Parmar website

NDP – Ravi Parmar: 10,940 (51.5%)

Conservative – Mike Harris: 8,039 (37.8%)

Green – Erin Cassels: 2,286 (10.8%)

Ravi Parmar easily held the seat he won in last summer's byelection, maintaining a vote share above 50% in the new riding created from the urban heart of the oversized riding that Parmar's mentor John Horgan had long held. The Westshore spoke with Parmar just before the polls closed. When he was asked about his election journey he said it was very similar to the last one:

“I knocked on a lot of doors and I get choked up because I've been to so many doors multiple times because, you know, I ran for school board in 2022, ran for MLA in 2023, and so if you have conversations you also build relationships with people, and I appreciate that.”

“The connections that I have built as a community organizer and in my work, both volunteer and professional, are the things that make a good MLA. I think it's really important as MLA to really know the riding and to know the community.”

Parmar also framed his success, and the votes his party received BC-wide, as a repudiation of the Conservative movement.

“We always knew it was going to be close and with the collapse of the [BC] Liberal Party and what's been going on throughout this election, it’s been very affirming that people really are stepping up to say these are the values we share, and that we want to see that defended.”  

“We've shown John Rustad that no matter what will happen tonight with the Conservative Party, or what I refer to as a conspiracy party in the legislature,  that's something that we all should be concerned about.”

Whether Parmar's NDP are able to keep Rustad from taking the balance of power in the Legislature may be determined right here in the Westshore region next weekend with the JDF recount.

In a way, this is a full-circle scenario. It was originally the relative success of Mike Harris in the Westshore byelection last year, at nearly 20%, and single-digit disappointment of the BC United, that kicked off the perception of the Conservatives as a viable party in BC and the primary right-leaning party. Harris nearly doubled his vote count this time around, with just under 38%. The Greens dipped from Camille Currie's byelection total, which was roughly tied with Harris.