B.C. Election Results - Liberals Win - STV Loses

Yesterday’s election is over and it went pretty much as expected. The incumbent Liberal Party was re-elected to a third straight term with 49 seats in the B.C. Legislature to the New Democratic Party’s 36. The Liberals increased their majority by a few seats this time and will now govern B.C. for the next four years.

As I mentioned yesterday, there was also a referendum on the ballot this time that would have changed the way we elect candidates in B.C. The choice was to switch from the traditional “First Past the Post” method to a Single Transferrable Vote(STV). The voters, rightly as far as I’m concerned, voted by a 61% to 39% margin to keep our current system – the same one in use throughout Canada and the U.S. Last election, this referendum almost succeeded by getting 58% of a needed 60% to pass. But, with the crushing defeat this time, it now looks like STV is dead in the water – rest in peace!!

Thankfully, that’s it for four more years and the incessant TV commercials and candidate phone calls will now stop for a while. At least Paulette and I did our part by voting so we do retain the right to complain if things don’t go the way we like – not that it will do any more good than it usually does!