John Horgan's NDP won a commanding majority on October 24, 2020, capturing 57 of 87 seats in a snap election called during the COVID-19 pandemic. Horgan requested dissolution on September 21, breaking the spirit of the 2017 confidence-and-supply agreement with the Greens, which had committed both parties to a full four-year term. The decision drew sharp criticism from opposition parties and advocacy groups — an Ipsos poll found 46% of British Columbians disapproved of the early call. Turnout fell to 54.5%, but a record 596,287 mail-in ballots were returned, dwarfing the roughly 6,500 mail-in votes cast in 2017.

The election came three years and five months into Horgan's minority government. Polling consistently showed the NDP with a substantial lead, and Horgan argued he needed a fresh mandate for pandemic recovery. Both the Liberals and Greens accused him of exploiting favourable polls at a time when the province needed stability.

Results

The NDP won 57 seats with 47.7% of the popular vote — the party's highest seat count and vote share in history. The Liberals won 28 seats with 33.8%, their worst result in decades. The Greens were reduced from 3 seats to 2 with 15.1%. Horgan became the first BC NDP leader to win back-to-back terms.

Final results took weeks to confirm due to the volume of mail-in ballots. The tightest race was West Vancouver-Sea to Sky, where Green candidate Jeremy Valeriote appeared to have won on election night but Liberal incumbent Jordan Sturdy overtook him after mail-in ballots were counted. A judicial recount confirmed Sturdy's victory by 60 votes, reducing the Greens from an apparent 3 seats to 2.

Party Leaders

John Horgan (NDP) — Horgan entered the election as a popular incumbent whose government had removed bridge tolls in Metro Vancouver, raised the minimum wage, adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples — making BC the first jurisdiction in North America to do so — and enacted roughly three-quarters of its platform promises during the minority term. A Victoria native with degrees from Trent University and the University of Sydney, Horgan had worked as a political staffer before entering the legislature in 2005 and becoming NDP leader in 2014.

Andrew Wilkinson (BC Liberal) — Born in Brisbane, Australia, Wilkinson grew up in Kamloops after his family immigrated to Canada. He earned a medical degree from the University of Alberta, a law degree as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, and practised medicine in rural BC communities before switching to law. First elected in Vancouver-Quilchena in 2013, he served in Clark's cabinet in Technology, Advanced Education, and as Attorney General. He won the Liberal leadership on February 3, 2018, on the fifth ballot with 53%. He announced his resignation as leader two days after the election.

Sonia Furstenau (BC Green) — A former high school teacher and regional district director in the Cowichan Valley, Furstenau entered politics in 2014 through a fight against a permitted contaminated soil dump near Shawnigan Lake's drinking water source. She won Cowichan Valley in 2017 and served as deputy leader under Andrew Weaver, who stepped aside in January 2020. Furstenau was elected leader on September 14, 2020 — just seven days before Horgan called the election — giving her virtually no preparation time.

Campaign Issues

COVID-19 dominated the campaign. The NDP's perceived competent management of the pandemic under Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry bolstered the government's standing. Voters assessed the pandemic response as the top issue, followed closely by economic recovery and housing affordability.

Old-growth forest protection entered the campaign debate for the first time in years. The NDP promised to implement all 14 recommendations of the Merkel-Gorley old-growth report, the Greens pushed for immediate logging deferrals, and the Liberals proposed a market-based approach.

The snap election itself was a campaign issue. Critics argued Horgan had broken the confidence-and-supply agreement's implicit commitment to a full term, and advocacy groups filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of the early call under BC's fixed election date law.

Notable Outcomes

The NDP broke through in traditionally Liberal territory across the Interior and Fraser Valley. In the Okanagan, Harwinder Sandhu won Vernon-Monashee by 424 votes, defeating a longtime Liberal incumbent. In the Fraser Valley, Megan Dykeman flipped Langley East. In Vancouver, NDP candidate Brenda Bailey defeated former mayor Sam Sullivan in Vancouver-False Creek.

The Greens retained only Cowichan Valley under Furstenau and Saanich North and the Islands under Adam Olsen, losing the balance-of-power position they had held since 2017.