BREAKING: NDP take Courtenay-Comox riding
Published 11:30 pm Saturday, October 24, 2026
The results are in and Will Cole-Hamilton is projected be the MLA for the Courtenay-Comox riding.
At 11:30 p.m. on election night, Cole-Hamilton was ahead with 45 per cent of the vote share. Though 100 per cent of the polls were reported on election night, results are considered preliminary until the final count is determined.
Asterisk denotes incumbent.
– Will Cole-Hamilton, B.C. NDP (45 per cent)
– Brennan Day – Conservative Party* (43 per cent)
– Jay Van Oostdam – BC Green Party (9.7 per cent)
– Jason Cook – CentreBC (2.5 per cent)
The BC NDP MLA-elect made it clear that he will now take a seat in Victoria’s Legislative Assembly because everyone managed to “buck a trend that swept the province.”
“I could not be more appreciative,” he said. “Somehow this community rose together to support a candidate and to support me and to support a set of values that care about the community, that care about the environment, and that care about each and every one of us.”
Cole-Hamilton said that winning the election has meant more than he could probably explain. However, he tried, mentioning the solidarity and connection that allowed it to happen.
He also had kind words for his opponents.
“This is never an easy thing to do, and each one of them put aside their families, put aside a good deal of sleep … It’s a difficult thing, but everyone did it because we have a vision of what a better Valley, what a better community and what a better electoral area looks like.”
The MLA-elect said he was sad to see the results around the province, but he would speak for everyone in the community in Victoria.
Outgoing Courtenay-Comox MLA Brennan Day faced a bittersweet result on election night, one that lost him his own seat in the legislature but saw his his Conservative party win a majority government.
“Those results speak for themselves, and I am extremely proud of that result, but I’m also very disappointed in the results here,” said Day as he addressed the crowd at his election night party.
In his concession speech, Day thanked his constituency and his staff, stating that while his team ran a clean campaign, he couldn’t say the same for the NDP. “But the voters have spoken and and it’s clear tonight that they have demanded an NDP minority in the opposition.”
A projected Conservative majority was solidified shortly after 9 p.m., prompting loud cheers and sustained applause from supporters gathered at the party’s election-night headquarters at Rocky Mountaineer Station in Vancouver. Lorne Doerkson is poised to become British Columbia’s next premier after leading the Conservative Party to a projected majority government Saturday, Oct. 24, barely five weeks after taking over a party struggling with internal divisions.
The Conservatives received less than two per cent of the vote in the 2020 provincial election but secured 44 seats in the 2024 election. The party went through internal turmoil over the last two years, with multiple defections, MLAs being kicked out and four leaders.
David Eby called the snap election Sept. 22 while the Conservative Party still appeared to be in turmoil. But Conservative leader Lorne Doerkson has unified the caucus and went into election day with a slight polling edge.
The projected victory would end nine years of NDP government and make Doerkson the first Conservative premier of British Columbia in nearly a century.
In the 2024 election, the B.C. NDP had 47 seats, but needed to name one of its own MLAs as speaker. Greens had two seats.
Results are considered preliminary until the final count is determined.
MLA-elects are expected to be sworn-in sometime in mid- or late-November.
— With files from Black Press provincial team