Four ridings on Vancouver Island will not have their results on Saturday night, with the results being close enough that they will rely on mail-in ballot results.
Elections BC will not start counting mail-in ballots until Nov. 6, meaning results will not be known until after that time.
Courtenay-Comox, Cowichan Valley, Juan de Fuca-Malahat and Ladysmith-Oceanside were very tight races all night and had not been called by 11:20 p.m.
Courtenay-Comox is split by only 700 votes with NDP’s Will Cole-Hamilton holding on to a narrow lead with 13,389 votes ahead of incumbent Brennan Day with the Conservatives with 12,689 votes.
Cowichan Valley has been neck-and-neck between the Conservatives and NDP, with only 51 separating the Conservatives’ Bert Chen and NDP’s Debra Toporowski. Chen was slightly in the lead with 10,786 votes.
Juan de Fuca-Malahat also is a tight race. The Conservatives’ Mike Hicks has the lead with 8,297 votes, ahead of the incumbent NDP’s Dana Lajeunesse with 7,716. This is a separation of 581 votes.
The Conservatives have a thin lead in Ladysmith-Oceanside. Kris McNichol has 13,413 votes with incumbent NDP’s Stephanie Higginson close with 13,323 votes — a separation of only 90 votes.
Laura has been working with CHEK since 2021 and is a graduate from Langara College’s journalism program. Previously she has worked at Page One Publishing and CFAX 1070.
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