SURREY, B.C. - David Eby intends to resign as leader of the BC NDP after the party lost the Oct. 24, 2026 provincial election to the Conservative Party of BC, The Canadian Press and CityNews reported Saturday night.
Update, Oct. 25: Elections BC’s final election-night count put Eby’s margin in Vancouver-Point Grey at 540 votes (7,811 to 7,271). Results are preliminary; the final count runs Nov. 6 to 10.
Eby, who has been premier of British Columbia since November 2022, called the snap election on Sept. 22, a year before the province’s fixed election date. The gamble ended with the Conservatives winning a majority government and the NDP reduced to opposition after nine years in power, in Elections BC’s preliminary results.
Eby holds his own seat by 540 votes
In his own riding of Vancouver-Point Grey, Eby leads Conservative candidate Alex McMillan by just 540 votes with every ballot box counted in the initial count, according to Elections BC results as of 9:52 p.m. PT: Eby 7,811 votes (42.92%), McMillan 7,271 (40.00%), Green candidate Beatrice Sharpe 2,423 (13.42%) and CentreBC’s Michael Davis 642 (3.56%). Results remain preliminary until Elections BC’s final count, Nov. 6 to 10. Eby has represented Vancouver-Point Grey since 2013 and stays on as the riding’s MLA; the resignation is from the party leadership and the premier’s office, which will change hands as the Conservative government is sworn in.
What happens next for the NDP
The BC NDP will now choose an interim leader and set a leadership contest to pick Eby’s permanent successor. The party went into the election holding 47 seats and is projected to return with under 30, losing seats across Metro Vancouver, including all 10 Surrey-area ridings, where NDP candidates trailed Conservatives in every race in the preliminary count. For Surrey, where the NDP held most of the city’s seats through its years in government, the leadership change means the city’s long-standing NDP MLAs and organizers will be rebuilding in opposition while a Conservative government sets the agenda on Surrey’s hospital, transit, policing and school files.
Eby’s time as premier
Eby became premier in November 2022 after winning the NDP leadership following John Horgan’s resignation. A lawyer first elected in 2013, he served as Attorney General and as Minister of Housing before becoming premier. His government made housing supply, health care and public safety its central files, and he called the 2026 snap election arguing British Columbia needed a fresh mandate amid its trade dispute with the United States. Voters instead handed the province to the Conservatives for the first time in nearly a century.
This story is developing and will be updated.
Source: The Canadian Press news report and Elections BC preliminary results, Oct. 24, 2026
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