BC Election Day reactions

Christy ClarkBC Liberal Party  6,893  44.27% 

David EbyBC NDP  7,152  45.93%

Eby 259 vote lead 

127 of 147 polls

I can't believe Suzanne Anton won her seat. What a monster.

cco wrote:

Clark is safer than Alison Redford. After what she pulled off tonight, she could probably govern from *outside* the legislature.

That is a great idea. Then she wouldn't have to answer questions from the opposition.

jas wrote:

In my opinion, something deeper is going on.

The pipeline lobby is evidently quite influential. They simply could not have an NDP win.

It is a little suspicious. But at this point there's no evidence of anything particularly sketchy going on.

The election is too close to call. I suggest getting into the streets, refusing to recognize the election results and completely ignore statistical means to determine the winner and call on Barack Obama to start sanctions against the province of BC. Once that begins-- the New Democrats should start touring around the world and abandon the system itself, citing the demise of democracy as why.

Demand recounts, and then when they are granted, state that the incumbent government had not gone far enough and start demanding fingerprinting of everyone and do as much as possible to undermine everything economically feasible in the country. Count on the media to play along with this game as much as possible.

If that doesn't happen, it is because we are not in Venezuela and the sitting government is loved by business interests and the global oil elites. Such things only happen in tightly contested elections where the actual system is at stake, and the opposition are not committed to anything resembling a normal electoral process.

In Canada, elections are not about changing the system. When they are anywhere in the world, and actual social changes are chosen, even if imperfect, a war on the whole process is started. In Canada, it will be forgotten in a week.

In Venezuela, an election means something. Take note.

- Macdonald Stainsby, via Facebook

This result is a disaster for students, teachers, labour, the poor and the environment.

ghoris wrote:

Aristotleded24 wrote:

Hey ghoris, remember all the people who criticized Greg Sellinger for running an agressive, "Harper-esque" campaign? Remind me how that worked out for him?

Yeah, but people turned on Selinger because of the negativity and Premier Hugh McFadyen remains quite popular in these parts.

Oh wait....

Let me just say, the CBC has not acquitted themselves terribly well tonight. The "social media" part in particular is just embarrassing. "We have cat photos and baby photos! We'll make our anchor pretend to drag the CBC logo back into frame on her giant touch screen every time her segment finishes!"

Eby for leader. I'm going to bed. Wake me in four years.

Catchfire wrote:

derrick wrote:

It looks like another pitifully low voter turnout.

A low voter turnout for the NDP, not for the Liberals, apparently. Again, not giving those who might have voted Orange reason to get out and do so. "One practical step at a time" didn't motivate anyone.

Adrian Dix: "Change for the better, one practical step at a time"

Jack Layton: "Don't let them tell you it can't be done," later morphing into "I won't stop until the job is done."

Which one do you find more inspirational?

The Conservative vote was only 5% at 12% the NDP wins a majority government. The NDP can't win in BC without a three way race.  The Liberals scared their voters into getting to the polls and the NDP offered more of the same but friendlier.  The youth vote is missing except maybe in Oak Bay.

Surprising results. Does anybody think the split between the NDP and the Greens did in Adrian? Despite some high profile support from key environmentalists, the ghost of the tax battles seems to have left some people voting Green who should have known better. While the Conservatives collapsed leaving the unite the right behind Clark, the Green NDP split leaves BC brown.

Has anybody mentioned Glen Clark as next NDP leader? 

I don`t know, cco. How does vote rigging occur in other countries?

Christy ClarkBC Liberal Party  7,361  44.65% 

David EbyBC NDP  7,538  45.72%

Eby 177 vote lead

135/147 polls

Even if Eby were to lose, he has done one hell of a job, given the overall NDP results, the fact he is running against the Premier, and the fact that the Conservative candidate has only 1.49% of the vote in the riding.

@ fluidity

I had to read that facebook post through a few times before I figured out it wasn't satire.

Other than the lesson to be learned about not taking polling data for gospel (and by now one would think we'd have learned that lesson after the last Alberta election) how are these results that far out of line from what regularly happens in B.C.?

I know how I think about the fringe right in the U.S. who simply refuse to accept the outcomes of elections that don't turn out their way. If that is a legitimate response why was no one here crying about conspiracy after the Tories' win in Alberta?

Is this a disappointment? To me, absolutely.

(though if it had gone the other way I'm sure we'd be reading that it makes no difference and that the NDP are just Liberal-Lite)

But crying illegitimacy, fixing or conspiracy or anything else without any evidence, and pretending that many BC residents do not support this result is a reaction that frankly deserves to get laughed out of the room.

Sorry, but I think these results call for more serious consideration and response.

Aristotleded24 wrote:

derrick wrote:

It looks like another pitifully low voter turnout.

[url=http://www.vancouversun.com/news/bc-election/reacts+record+voter+turnout...

Quote:

Only 48% of eligible British Columbians voted in the 2013 election, according to early reports, down from 58% in the 2005 election.

It was a record low voter turnout.

Wow, that's pretty pathetic. It seems clearer and clearer, but the higher the turnout the better for our side. There really needs to be an effort to stir up votes. Some of the totals in these ridings are absurdly low.

cco wrote:

jas: Three ways, generally. You bribe or intimidate the voters (Tennessee, Quebec), you corrupt the scrutineers (Jordan, Greece), or you just blatantly fabricate the results at the top level (Iraq, North Korea). Which of these do you think happened today in BC?

None of the above.

Less people voted and like last election the NDP lost more support than the Liberals did.  Apparetnly the theme of we're not the Liberals didn't really get people excited. 

Christy ClarkBC Liberal Party  7,987  44.31% 

David EbyBC NDP  8,347  46.30%

139/147 polls

Eby 360 vote lead with 8 polls to go

This is a bit of a tangent, but the CBC just brought up the idiotic idea of introducing online voting. For one, people who are motivated to vote will vote, and changing it to online will not have an impact. The second thing is that the reason we vote with paper ballots is to ensure privacy and the integrity of the voting system, you know, make sure people don't do crazy things like voting more than once. I don't forsee any online voting method that can reliably address those concerns.

Brachina wrote:

This is good news for the BC Liberals and the Greens, they have thier first provincial seat. I feel sick. First time in my life I'm glad I live in Ontario instead of BC.

Actually it's very bittersweet for the Greens, as it was with Elizabeth May getting elected. Sure they have an MLA, but Weaver would have been more effective pushing an NDP majority.

@ Aristotleded24

I'm not watching TV, but did CBC mention proportional representation? Given the outcome, that seems like a more appropriate thing to bring up than online voting.

Liberal wins confirmed in Coquitlam-Maillardville and Vancouver-Fraserview. The only seat left to be decided is Vancouver-Point Grey. I think Eby will probably pull it out - he is leading by 450 votes with 139/147 polls reporting. His lead has slowly but steadily been growing.

Even if Eby holds on, this is still a net loss of 2 seats for the NDP from 2009.

GREEN VOTES MORE THAN LIBERAL VICTORY MARGINS in 12 ridings

Comox Valley:
NDP 38.44%

Liberal 44.69%

Green 11.48%

Conservative 5.40%

Boundary-Similkameen

Liberal 46.34%

NDP 39.28%

Green 8.74%

Pederson 2.06%

Popoff 3.59%

Burnaby North

Liberal 47.35%

NDP 43.15%

Green 6.86%

Marklund 2.64%

Coquitlam-Maillardville

Liberal  45.98%

NDP 45.44%

Green 8.58%

Delta North

Liberal 44.93%

NDP 43.43%

Green  5.84%

Conservative  4.47%

Shavluk 1.01%

Communist 0.31%

Fraser-Nicola

Liberal 44.89%

NDP 38.77%

Green 9.56%

Conservative 6.78%

Maple Ridge-Mission

Liberal 46.21%

NDP 39.66%

Green 8.62%

Conservative 5.51%

Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows

Liberal 45.79%

NDP 42.63%

Green 9.07%

Pratas 2.51%

North Vancouver-Lonsdale

Liberal 45.87%

NDP 40.23%

Green 9.11%

Conservative  3.52%

Libertarian 0.65%

British Columbia Party 0.32%

Communist 0.30%

Port Moody-Coquitlam

Liberal Party 46.85%

NDP 44.00%

Green 8.02%

Libertarian 1.13%

Surrey-Fleetwood

Liberal 45.65%

NDP 44.17%

Green 5.74%

Conservative  4.16%

B.C. Vision 0.27%

Vancouver-Fraserview

Liberal  47.15%

NDP 44.39%

Green  5.42%

Conservative  3.04%

I understand the BC NDP has favoured proportional representation since 2002 or earlier, yet never mentioned it during this campaign. An obvious mistake. 

jerrym wrote:

a NDP leader cannot have any questionmarks about his ethics (it does not matter if they are true or false, it will be exploited, espeically when the MSM favours the free enterprise party)

I understand this point, but how do you safeguard against taking it to the point where you're expecting your leaders to be perfect human beings? Everybody has made mistakes and done bad things, and it's quite possible that you might become over-zealous and miss out on some potentially great leaders.