A Message from CUPE BC Regarding NDP Election

Legislative Update – Election Edition

October 27, 2020

Although nearly 500,000 ballots have yet to be counted, the BCNDP was declared to have won a majority government. This will be the first NDP majority government in British Columbia since 1996. It is also the first time an NDP Premier was re-elected in BC history. So far, John Horgan’s BC NDP gained 14 new seats in the legislature and received 45% of the popular vote, an increase from 40% in the 2017 election.

Andrew Wilkinson, leader of the BC Liberals, announced that he is resigning as leader, but will stay on until a new leader is chosen.

BC NDP Election Platform 

The full BC NDP platform and be found here. Some campaign promises of particular interest to CUPE members include:

  • Worker Rights: Ensure that every worker has the right to join a union through a strategy developed in partnership with labour and business. Further improvements to WorkSafeBC and increased safety inspections at work sites.
  • Human Rights and Pay Equity: Continue to address systemic discrimination in the workplace and move closer to equal pay for equal work through new pay transparency legislation.
  • K-12: Continue to make classrooms safer through the installation of new ventilation systems, plexiglass barriers in key areas of the school, comprehensive cleaning stations, and by ensuring more cleaning hours in all schools. Invest in more training for staff, and in new ways to improve social e-learning that promotes group interactions between students and teachers.
  • Post-Secondary: Create new early childhood education and tech relevant spaces in public post-secondary institutions and reduce barriers to access post-secondary education.
  • Healthcare: Unprecedented expansions and improvements in our public healthcare system.
  • Childcare: Expand universal $10 a day childcare, enshrine universal childcare in law, continue to expand childcare in the province, work toward providing universal access to before and afterschool care on school grounds, expand the successful ECE wage enhancement program and move responsibility for childcare to the Ministry of Education.
  • Trades: Restore the compulsory trade system to improve safety and give more workers access to apprenticeships to develop their skills for the work ahead.

Tentative Results

  • Preliminary Seat Count: NDP 55, Liberals 29, Greens 3
  • A majority government needs 44 seats, so the BC NDP have a comfortable margin regardless of the mail-in ballots. Also, since polls indicated that the NDP was leading for the mail-in ballots, it’s more likely that their vote will only increase.
  • There are eight ridings that are very close and could change with the mail-in ballots:
    • Abbotsford-Mission – Liberal Simon Gibson is leading by 188 votes.
    • Richmond-South Centre – NDP Henry Yao is up by 124 votes.
    • Vernon-Monashee – Liberal Eric Foster is ahead by 180 votes.
    • Chilliwack-Kent – NDP Kelli Paddon is up 195 votes over Laurie Throness.
    • Fraser-Nicola – Liberal Jackie Tegart leads by 385 votes.
    • Richmond–Steveston – NDP Kelly Greene is leading with 596 more votes.
    • Vancouver-Langara – Liberal Michael Lee is up 647 votes.
    • Surrey-White Rock – Liberal Trevor Halford currently has 729 votes more than NDP candidate and CUPE member Bryn Smith.
  • There are another nine ridings where the margin of victory is about 1000 votes or less, but it is unlikely that these will change hands. The NDP is leading in five of these ridings, the Liberals in three and the Greens in one.

CUPE Candidates

  • CUPE member Lisa Beare and former Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture (Local 4078) was re-elected in her riding of Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows.
  • CUPE National Representative Rachna Singh was declared re-elected in Surrey-Green Timbers.
  • CUPE member Dan Coulter (Local 3787) broke through to be elected in Chilliwack.
  • HEU Secretary – Business Manager Jennifer Whiteside was elected in New Westminster.
  • As mentioned above, CUPE member Bryn Smith (Local 728) still has a chance in Surrey-White Rock.
  • Unfortunately, CUPE members Sylvia Lindgren (Local 523) in Shuswap and Cory Longley (Local 2043) in Peace River South were not successful.

 Mail-in Ballot Count

  • The final count of mail-in ballots will begin on November 6, as is required under the Elections Act, and Elections BC is hoping to have the final results by November 16.
  • We will find out on November 5 how many certified mail-in ballots were received per district. Currently we only know how many were requested (724,279) and that roughly 478,000 were received back. By contrast, in the 2017 provincial election, approximately 6,500 votes were cast by mail.
  • Absentee ballots will also be counted at this time, and Elections BC expects about 20,000 of these.

 In solidarity,

Justin Schmid
CUPE Legislative Coordinator – BC Region