Eby Calls Snap B.C. Election as Conservatives Fracture
Premier David Eby calls a snap B.C. election for Oct. 24 as the Conservatives splinter and CentreBC emerges as a new political force.
BC Election 2026
By Elke Porter | WBN News Vancouver | September 22, 2026
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British Columbia Premier David Eby called a snap provincial election Tuesday, sending voters to the polls on Saturday, Oct. 24 — just one week after municipal elections wrap up on Oct. 17. Eby met with Lieutenant Governor Wendy Lisogar-Cocchia at Government House in Victoria Tuesday morning to dissolve the legislature, less than two years into the BC NDP's four-year mandate.
Eby framed the early call as a response to the ongoing trade dispute with the United States, describing the moment as "existential" for both British Columbians and Canadians. "The prime minister has called this a rupture, and he is absolutely right," Eby said, referencing federal counterpart Mark Carney. "Donald Trump is attacking our workers. He's targeting our businesses, and he is threatening our sovereignty."
Political observers see a second motive: capitalizing on disarray inside the Official Opposition. The BC Conservatives have lost roughly 45 percent of the seats they won in the December 2024 election through a wave of caucus departures and expulsions, and leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay resigned Sunday after just 113 days in the role.
Who's running
Eby leads the governing BC NDP into the campaign seeking a third term. The Conservatives will be led by interim leader Lorne Doerkson, the MLA for Cariboo-Chilcotin, appointed by a unanimous caucus vote Monday after Findlay's resignation. Doerkson has moved quickly to reunify the fractured caucus, bringing several ousted MLAs back into the fold within a day of taking over.
A significant new player has emerged from the Conservative split: CentreBC, now the third-largest party in the legislature. Kamloops-Centre MLA Peter Milobar took over as CentreBC's leader on Sept. 18, replacing Mike Bernier. The party has grown to eight MLAs — all former Conservatives, including Donegal Wilson, Bruce Banman, Rosalyn Bird, Ian Paton, Teresa Wat, Áʼaːlíya Warbus and Eleanor Sturko — positioning itself between the NDP and the Conservatives on fiscal policy.
The BC Green Party will be led by Emily Lowan, who became leader in September 2025 at 25, reportedly the first Generation Z leader of a major Canadian political party. The BC Greens currently hold a small seat count but have polled in double digits this year. OneBC, a smaller party led by Dallas Brodie, also holds seats in the legislature and is expected to field candidates.
Full candidate lists for individual ridings are still being finalized by all parties as the writ period begins.
Eby's odds
The race is genuinely competitive rather than a foregone conclusion. A June 2026 Research Co. poll had the NDP and Conservatives tied at 42 percent each among decided voters — a sharp swing from the 2024 result that saw the NDP win a narrow 47-seat majority, and a shift that came after the Conservatives' own leadership race that produced Findlay. The NDP's showing was already visibly softer before this month's caucus chaos began.
More recent numbers complicate the picture further. An Angus Reid Institute survey conducted Sept. 8–15 found 47 percent of respondents rating the NDP government's performance negatively, with half saying it's time for a change of government. But the same survey found 51 percent unenthusiastic about any of the alternatives on offer — what Angus Reid's Shachi Kurl summed up simply as "a mess."
That combination appears to be exactly what Eby is betting on: calling the election now, while the Conservatives are mid-split and CentreBC is still finding its footing, rather than waiting for the opposition landscape to stabilize. Doerkson has pushed back hard on the timing, telling reporters the province is "gonna be sadly mistaken" if it underestimates Conservative support, and has seized on the roughly $83–84 million price tag of the last election to accuse Eby of reckless spending amid a widening deficit.
With four parties now holding seats in the legislature and voters facing back-to-back municipal and provincial campaigns, the Oct. 24 result is shaping up as one of the least predictable in recent B.C. history.
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