B.C. Green Leader Sonia Furstenau loses seat in 2024 election
2 other Green candidates declared winners in their respective ridings
The B.C. Green Party's leader has lost her seat in the legislature, according to preliminary results in Saturday's provincial election — but the party will still send two MLAs to Victoria.
Sonia Furstenau's loss in the Victoria-Beacon Hill riding was confirmed around 8:40 p.m. PT.
The Greens ran 69 candidates in this election. At 12:05 a.m. PT on Sunday, Rob Botterell was declared elected in Saanich North and the Islands, and Jeremy Valeriote was declared elected in West Vancouver-Sea to Sky.
Though the Greens were the first of B.C.'s three major parties to release their platform, on Oct. 1, Furstenau acknowledged after a televised debate on Oct. 8 that her party would not form government after Saturday's election.
The Greens consistently polled around the 10 to 11 per cent mark during the election campaign.
Still, she had requested that voters send Greens to the Legislature to keep the other two parties, the NDP and Conservatives, in check.
Furstenau had said at the time of the debate that the NDP and Conservatives were aligned on continuing to subsidize the fossil fuel industry, privatizing the health-care system and proposing a program on involuntary care to fight the province's drug overdose crisis, instead of increasing voluntary treatment.
The Greens had promised to establish a network of 93 community health centres in the province, an expansion of a safe supply of drugs and a freeze on fracking and pipeline permits.
In a concession speech, Furstenau held back tears as she thanked her party staff and volunteers for their work.
"It has been such an honour to be an MLA. It's not the outcome we hoped for in Victoria-Beacon Hill tonight, but I'm so proud of the campaign that we ran," she said to cheering supporters.
"We knew we were up against a steep hill, we were trying something bold and new, but the challenge was a little more than we could do."
Leader chose to run in different seat
In 2017, the Greens won three seats in the legislature under then-leader Andrew Weaver, and helped the B.C. NDP form a minority government through a confidence and supply agreement.
Then, the NDP called a snap election in 2020, something that Furstenau — who had assumed leadership by that point — called a major surprise. The party lost one of their seats, and the NDP won a decisive majority.
Before the 2024 election, Green MLA Adam Olsen chose not to run in his Saanich North and the Islands seat, leaving Furstenau as the sole elected Green Party member defending a seat.
But Furstenau chose not to defend her Cowichan Valley seat, and instead chose to take on NDP incumbent Grace Lore in the Victoria-Beacon Hill riding — a riding that had been held by the NDP since 2005.
While Furstenau had said on Oct. 13 that polls showed her party doing well in certain ridings — including Victoria-Beacon Hill — overall trends showed her party a distant third behind the Conservatives and NDP throughout the campaign.
The Greens' former leader, Weaver, had chosen to endorse Rustad at the start of the race — despite the Tory leader's controversial views on climate change.
Former B.C. NDP MLA and party president Moe Sihota told CBC's Stephen Quinn that his party had devoted extra resources to the Victoria-Beacon Hill riding during the campaign.
"As the campaign evolved and we [saw] we're doing well in the other Victoria seats, we did put extra resources from those seats and moved them over to assist in that race," he said.
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With files from Courtney Dickson