KELOWNA, B.C. - The closest race in British Columbia got closer this weekend. Elections BC’s final count in Kelowna Centre showed Conservative Kristina Loewen leading the BC NDP’s Loyal Wooldridge by 43 votes when the final count was completed on Sunday, November 8, down from the 132-vote lead Loewen held on election night, with no winner declared.
Loewen had 11,689 votes to Wooldridge’s 11,646 out of 24,272 valid votes counted, with OneBC’s Bill Desrosiers third at 937. Elections BC lists the riding’s status as “Complete.” The 43-vote gap is the smallest margin in any of B.C.’s 93 ridings in the final count, ahead of Ladysmith-Oceanside at 50 votes and Burnaby South-Metrotown at 64.
How the margin shrank
On election night, October 24, Loewen led Wooldridge 10,791 to 10,659 with all 86 ballot boxes reported, a margin of 132 votes that was too close to call. The final count, which began November 6 and was completed on November 8 at 4:21 p.m., adds mail-in, absentee and other certification-envelope ballots. Those added ballots favoured Wooldridge slightly: of the 1,949 valid votes added since election night, Wooldridge gained 987, Loewen gained 898 and Desrosiers gained 64, cutting Loewen’s lead by 89 votes. Apna News reported the election-night picture in its Kelowna and Central Okanagan results.
Kelowna Centre, final count
Kristina Loewen, Conservative Party of BC: 11,689 votes (48.2 per cent)
Loyal Wooldridge, BC NDP: 11,646 votes (48.0 per cent)
Bill Desrosiers, OneBC: 937 votes (3.9 per cent)
Total valid votes: 24,272. Rejected ballots: 74. Status: final count complete.
A judicial recount follows
A margin this small is not the end of the process. Kelowna Centre’s election-night margin was 132 votes, above the 100-vote threshold for an automatic district electoral officer recount, so it was not one of the ridings Elections BC listed for that recount before the final count. After the final count, however, the 43-vote margin is less than one five-hundredth of the 24,346 ballots considered, so it meets the threshold for a judicial recount. Until any recount is done, Kelowna Centre’s result remains preliminary, and neither candidate can be declared elected. Elections BC’s Return Day, when the writs are returned, is November 18. Apna News is tracking the provincewide picture in its final count explainer, and reported the Burnaby South-Metrotown lead change on November 7.
The provincial picture
Provincewide, the completed Elections BC final count had the Conservative Party of BC leading in 64 ridings with 928,019 votes (47.71 per cent), the BC NDP leading in 27 ridings with 730,939 votes (37.58 per cent), and the BC Greens leading in two ridings with 216,808 votes (11.15 per cent). Kelowna Centre is the last undecided riding in the Central Okanagan, where the Conservatives won the region’s other five seats on election night. If Loewen’s lead holds through any recount, the Conservatives keep the seat and their 64-riding standing; if the riding changes hands, the NDP would move to 28.
(Source: Elections BC, November 8, 2026)
Apna News
