41st BC Parliament not yet decided...

In a first time since 1952, BC looks like, at this stage, will have a minority Parliament with current standings at 43 BC Liberals, 41 BC NDP and 3 Green Party MLA's holding the balance of power.  It should be noted, in 1952, that BC Parliament lasted less than a year, as a minority Parliament, before returning to a majority Parliament in the subsequent election in 1953

There will be an automatic judicial recount in Courtney-Comox as the initial count falls within the Election Act guideline that the difference between the top 2 candidates is less than 1/500th of all valid votes cast which is this case would be 54 votes and the current difference between the top two candidates in Courtney-Comox is 9 votes

There is the potential for recounts in Maple Ridge-Mission and Coquitlam-Burke Mountain as the difference between the top two candidates is 100 votes or less.  Deadline to apply for a recount is Friday

Meanwhile - Elections BC reports, as of this writing, that the following ridings have yet to finish completing "initial count" which does include Advanced Voting and General Voting:

* Cariboo-Chilcotin

* Kamloops-North Thompson

* Kootenay-West

* Langley-East

* Nanaimo

And from May 22-24, Elections BC will complete what's called final count which counts absentee, special and mail in ballots.  After that, any recounts including judicial recounts are completed so results potentially won't be fully/finally known until late May or very early in June

Back home - Coralee Oakes was easily re-elected in Cariboo-North with 5,969 votes vs her opponents Scott Elliott (BC NDP) at 4,117 votes; Richard Jacques (BC Greens) at 836 votes and finally Tony Goulet (BC Conservative) with 690 votes.  Initial results show that 59.2% of all registered voters in Cariboo-North cast a ballot

In Cariboo-Chilcotin - Donna Barnett secured a 3rd term by earning 7,710 votes vs her opponents in Sally Watson (BC NDP) who received 3,434 votes and Rita Giesbrecht (BC Greens) receiving 1,979 votes.  Initial results show that 56.1% of all registered voters in Cariboo-Chilcotin cast a ballot

Congrats to both MLA's-elect Donna Barnett/Coralee Oakes and thank you to the other candidates for running.  28 Day provincial election campaigns can be very gruelling on one's health and that of the candidates families/supporters... 

Finally -- what's next:

As I said above, final count must be completed by May 24th and then recounts/judicial recount are then completed.  "If" the result stays the same - there are two options in minority government:

1) The first, which Canadians saw with the federal government from 2004 to 2011, involves one party fully in control of cabinet and the executive branch of government, but regularly negotiating with other parties in order to get enough votes to pass legislation.

2) The second approach is a coalition government where a formal agreement is made between multiple parties, usually involving the sharing of cabinet posts, along with guarantees on certain pieces of legislation and how decisions will be made.

Stay tuned, folks, it isn't over yet...

~SF