Another day of vote counting saw some dramatic lead changes in the tight riding of Courtenay-Comox, but the NDP once again remained on top.
With the last of the ballots to be counted on Wednesday, NDP candidate Ronna-Rae Leonard has increased her lead over Liberal rival Jim Benninger to 101 votes, the widest margin yet in the contest.
Elections BC has been updating its website periodically as more absentee ballots are counted in ridings across the province.
At one point, Benninger jumped ahead of Leonard with a three-vote lead when Elections BC updated its count around noon.
The organization said it would provide further updates at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m., but it didn’t end up releasing an updated vote tally for Courtenay-Comox until about 5:45 p.m.
Elections BC said it would once again provide vote count updates Wednesday starting at 10 a.m. Officials say about half of the ballots have been counted in the riding so far.
No less than the fate of B.C.’s government hangs in the balance.
As it stands, the Liberals have 43 seats in the BC Legislature to the NDP’s 41, while the Greens would hold the balance of power in a minority government with their three seats.
If Benninger does win the riding, it would give the BC Liberals the 44 seats needed to form a majority government barring changes in any other ridings.
If Leonard wins and a judicial recount is not triggered, B.C. will see its first minority government in six decades.
A few groups aren’t waiting for the final results to lobby for a coalition government to form.
On Tuesday, a number of civil society groups made up of unions and health care, and child care coalitions handed over a petitions of 25,000 signatures calling for the BC Greens and NDP to work together on key issues.
The Greens’ Sonia Furstenau and NDP’s Carole James accepted the signatures.
Elections BC says counts have been completed in 73 of the province's 87 ridings so far.
