The B.C. NDP has lost major ground in Surrey after a night of tight races — but the election is not quite over yet.
Spirits remained at the Surrey New Democratic Party headquarters late into the night on Saturday, Oct. 19, even as supporters watched previously orange seats fall to blue. With endless photos, speeches and an abundance of hugs, the NDP candidates were keeping hopes high for a provincial NDP win.
Surrey's 10 ridings made it a key battleground for David Eby's B.C. NDP team and John Rustad's B.C. Conservatives — and the NDP didn't pull out the decisive victory it needed. The NDP claimed just three, one of those by a razor-thin margin, with the Conservatives scoring seven victories.
As of midnight, no leader had been declared in the provincial election, since neither party had been able to secure the 47 ridings necessary for a majority government.
The count stood at 46 for the NDP, 45 for the Conservatives, and two for the B.C. Greens.
A handful of seats, however, were close enough to cast even that total into doubt.
Among those is Surrey-City Centre, where New Democrat Amna Shah ended the night with a narrow victory over Conservative candidate Zeeshan Wahla — by 96 votes, under the 100 threshold for a recount.
On the flip side, incumbent NDP Gary Begg lost Surrey Guildford by just 102 votes to Conservative Honveer Singh Randhawa.
In both cases, out-of-district ballots still needed to be counted, leaving the fate of potential recounts hanging overnight. Elections BC announced the end of counting on Sunday afternoon (Oct. 20), and both results stand — making Surrey-City Centre one of just two ridings in B.C., along with Juan de Fuca-Malahat on Vancouver Island, to qualify for an automatic recount. Both of those ridings were NDP wins.
Those recounts will take place during final count, which runs from Oct. 26 to 28.
Candidates or financial agents can also ask for recounts for specific reasons outlined in the Elections Act; if they choose to do so, they have until Oct. 22 to make their request.
After final counts, any riding that remains with the difference between the top two finishers being within 1/500th of the total votes cast must then go to judicial recount. In Surrey-City Centre, with 13,925 ballots cast, that would require a difference of less than 28 votes between the top two; in Surrey-Guildford, with 18,395 votes in play, that would require a difference of less than 37 votes between the top two candidates for a judicial recount to occur.
As it stood heading into the election campaign, orange was the dominant colour in British Columbia's second-largest city, as New Democrats held seven of the existing nine ridings (one new riding was created for this election).
Five of those incumbents were in the hunt for new terms tonight: Mike Starchuk in Surrey-Cloverdale, Jagrup Brar in Surrey-Fleetwood, Rachna Singh in Surrey North (formerly Green Timbers), Begg in Surrey-Guildford and Jinny Sims in Surrey-Panorama.
Singh — a former cabinet minister and two-term MLA — saw herself fall to Conservative challenger Mandeep Dhaliwal, and Starchuk appears set to fall to Conservative Elenore Sturko. Begg was in a tight battle for Surrey-Guildford, with Conservative Honveer Singh Randhawa, ultimately coming out 102 votes short.
Sims also fell in Surrey-Panorama, with 47.78% of the vote to Conservative Bryan Tepper's 49.89%.
Voters in Surrey-Newton have once again elected an NDP MLA, with Jessie Sunner following in the footsteps of former MLA and labour minister Harry Bains, 72, who held the seat since 2005 before retiring from politics in July.
Brar won his riding back in Fleetwood with 48.24% of the vote to Conservative Avtar Gill's 45.28%.
Sunner, Sims, Brar, Begg and new NDP hopefuls Amnah Shah and Baltej Dhillon were all present at the NDP Surrey party, speaking to the crowd gathered. It was a celebration for Sunner and Brar, while Sims, Begg and Dhillon gave concession speeches.
Rachna Singh was notably absent from the NDP party in Surrey.
In Surrey City Centre, NDP newcomer Amna Shah was in a neck-and-neck battle with Conservative Zeeshan Wahla throughout the night.
The city's two southern ridings, Surrey South and Surrey-White Rock, were held by incumbents who began their careers with the B.C. Liberals (later B.C. United) and who are now Conservatives: Elenore Sturko in Surrey South, and Trevor Halford in Surrey-White Rock.
Halford has once again taken the Surrey-White Rock seat, facing down former White Rock mayor Darryl Walker for the NDP.
In Surrey South, meanwhile, B.C.Conservative Brent Chapman won a decisive victory in a head-to-head match-up against the NDP's Haroon Ghaffar, in territory that has traditionally voted right-of-centre.
The newly created riding of Surrey-Serpentine River, which was created out of portions of Surrey-Cloverdale, Surrey-Panorama and Surrey-Fleetwood, was a race to watch, with former mayor Linda Hepner for the Conservatives facing down former RCMP officer Baltej Singh Dhillon for the B.C. NDP. Hepner has won that riding.
