As British Columbians await the final results of two judicial recounts with the B.C. NDP preparing to govern with the slimmest of slim majorities, B.C. students delivered an even more divided legislature in the Student Vote British Columbia 2024.
The vote organized by CIVIX, a non-partisan registered Canadian charity dedicated to strengthening democracy through civic education for school-aged youth saw 177,043 elementary, middle and secondary students vote.
They gave the B.C. NDP 43 seats with 36.66 per cent of the popular vote (64,899 votes). The Conservative Party of B.C. won 40 seats with 36.13 per cent of the popular vote (63,973). The biggest difference between the student vote and the actual vote concerns the B.C. Greens. Their 20 per cent share of the popular vote (34,256 votes) translated into 10 seats 鈥� eight more than the final vote released by Elections BC.
Specifically, students helped the B.C. Green paint Vancouver Island green, winning nine of their 10 seats on Vancouver Island and dominating Greater Victoria and parts of central and northern Vancouver Island. That haul includes Victoria-Beacon Hill, which would have returned Sonia Furstenau to the legislature.
Other differences also stand out. The B.C. NDP would have held on to both of its incumbent seats in the Okanagan (rather than just Vernon-Lumby) and win another in the region (Penticton-Summerland), while the Conservatives did better in the City of Vancouver proper.
But the students' vote was also prophetic in other ways. Students sent zero independents to Victoria. Students also helped the Conservatives dominate the provincial mainland, including Bulkley Valley-Stikine, where Sharon Hartwell upset Nathan Cullen. The Conservatives also dominated the Fraser Valley and Surrey with the proviso that New Democrats were able to hang on to some of their incumbents, something they couldn't in the actual vote.
But the students did get a key vote wrong: Surrey-Guildford. While students elected Honveer Randhawa in Surrey-Guildford, the final vote count shows the riding going to incumbent New Democrat Garry Begg. This said, Surrey-Guildford is one of the two ridings subject to a judicial recount on Nov. 7/8, the other being Kelowna-Centre.
