Legislative Update – Election Edition: Final Results

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Legislative Update – Election Final Results

On behalf of CUPE BC’s Legislative Coordinator

With all ballots counted, the BC NDP has been confirmed 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. John Horgan’s BC NDP gained 16 new seats in the legislature and received 47.7% of the popular vote, an increase from 40% in the 2017 election. The absentee and mail-in ballots definitely favoured the NDP, who received 52.5% of these votes, compared to 30.9% for the Liberals and 14.7% for the Greens.

 Final Results

  • Seat Count: NDP 57, Liberals 28, Greens 2
  • There were three seats that changed with the counting of the mail-in ballots:
    • Abbotsford-Mission – Liberal incumbent Simon Gibson was defeated by the NDP’s Pam Alexis.
    • Vernon-Monashee – NDP candidate Harwinder Sandhu defeated Liberal Eric Foster in a quick historic win.
    • West Vancouver – Sea to Sky – Green candidate Jeremy Valeriote, who was in the lead on election day, was defeated by Liberal incumbent Jordan Sturdy by less than 1/500 of the total ballots (41). As such, a judicial recount is required, which will be done in the coming days.

 CUPE Candidates

Congratulations to all the CUPE members and staff who were elected:

  • 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.
  • CUPE member Henry Yao (Local 1936) won a seat in Richmond – South Centre.
  • HEU Secretary – Business Manager Jennifer Whiteside was elected in New Westminster.
  • We would also like to recognize CUPE members Bryn Smith (Local 728) in Surrey – White Rock, Sylvia Lindgren (Local 523) in Shuswap and Cory Longley (Local 2043) in Peace River South who ran for the BC NDP but were not successful this time.

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.

 Legislative Calendar

While the legislature is not currently scheduled to resume until the Spring session in February, at least one of the BC NDP’s campaign promises, the one-time $1000 COVID–19 recovery benefit, will need legislation to enact. Therefore, it is likely that a short session in late November or early December will follow the swearing-in of the new cabinet.

In solidarity.