Polls in British Columbia are closed and NDP and Conservative poll workers crowded into huge ballrooms to watch early election results.

Elections BC has said full results will be available within two hours. Throughout the campaign, polling aggregator 338canada.com consistently found that support was evenly split between the NDP and Conservatives.

Vancouver-South Granville NDP candidate Brenda Bailey, who served in David Eby's cabinet, said she is both concerned and optimistic.

“If the ground game is worth anything, we’re hopeful,” she said.

The weather added stress on Saturday, with voters heading to the polls amid heavy rains that led to minor flooding and brief power outages at some polling stations.

An atmospheric river flooded much of the province's coastal regions, resulting in flood warnings for several rivers along the Central and South Coasts, Lower Fraser tributaries and waterways in Greater Vancouver and Vancouver Island.

The north is not spared either: Environment Canada maintains snow warnings in several areas.

Elections BC, which has made increasing voter turnout a priority, posted blackouts on X, formerly known as Twitter, and directed citizens to alternative voting locations.

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Karen Kirkpatrick, who is running as an independent in West Vancouver, posted on Ms. Kirkpatrick had been a BC United MLA but became an independent after her former party canceled her campaign.

“I'm already soaking wet and the day has just begun,” she posted. “It’s going to be a hot chocolate day.”

A 2018 study by two University of Ottawa scientists of voter turnout in five federal elections this century found that every millimeter of rainfall reduced the number of voters by more than 0.1 percentage points, while higher temperatures prompted more people to vote to give away.

According to Andrew Watson, senior director of communications at Elections BC, the election has already seen record early voting, with more than 28 per cent – ​​just over a million – of all registered voters having already voted.

The election campaign featured two main candidates on the ballot: the incumbent New Democratic Party and the emerging Conservatives. With 93 seats in the running, one of them had to secure at least 47 seats in Saturday's vote to form a majority government.

The two main parties maintained a strong partisan divide, while the Greens and a record number of independents spread the message that a minority government – like the NDP-Green alliance that governed BC from 2017 to 2020 – would deliver better results for the province.

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The election focused on three key issues that British Columbians care about: health care, cost of living and public safety.

But the political landscape was marked by rapid change as center-right forces formed an uneasy alliance just weeks before the election campaign began.

The Conservatives, revived by Mr. Rustad after he was expelled from the BC United caucus, surged in public opinion polls last fall and soon surpassed the popularity of Mr. Rustad's former party.

The split of votes between two center-right parties appeared to secure another term for the NDP, and the failing BC United party came under pressure to back out. On August 28, BC United boss Kevin Falcon did just that, leaving his faction completely surprised. Now the Conservatives offered the only alternative to the NDP to form a government.

Mr. Rustad's campaign was hit by controversy over comments he and some of his candidates made on gay rights, climate change, vaccines and racism. These details were collected by BC United's research team in an extensive dossier and made public following Mr. Falcon's sudden decision to cancel his party's election campaign.

The Conservatives brushed aside the attacks, and Mr. Rustad instead painted a bleak picture of British Columbia under seven years of NDP rule, saying people were dying on the streets from drug overdoses because of failed mitigation strategies and the cost of living was higher than incomes because the private sector was stymied and schools have become centers of ideological indoctrination of students.

The NDP acknowledged throughout the campaign that British Columbians were unhappy and promised cash relief in the form of a “grocery rebate”, more middle-income housing, better health services and an expansion of involuntary care for people with significant mental health and substance abuse problems . The NDP also committed to providing before- and after-school care.

Mr. Eby never missed an opportunity to describe the Conservatives as dangerous and extreme, often spending more time attacking his opponent than promoting his own policies.

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The Conservatives have promised to abolish carbon pricing as soon as the federal election comes around. Starting in the 2026 budget, the Conservatives would offer tax exemptions for rent, mortgage interest and strata fees of $1,500 per month, with the exemption eventually rising to $3,000 per month. Mr. Rustad wants to cancel a program promoting sexual orientation and gender identity in schools and ban books in the education system that he says promote “activist ideology.”

The provincial deficit, set to hit a record $9 billion this fiscal year, is expected to continue rising because both parties have made commitments worth billions of dollars a year.

To get out of this hole, the next government will count on a growing economy to pay the bills. The NDP platform forecasts GDP to rise 3.1 percent a year, while the Conservatives promised to balance the budget within eight years, assuming an annual growth rate of 5.4 percent. The Conference Board of Canada, the country's largest private economic analyst, expects the province's economy to grow by an average of 2.1 percent in the coming years.

With a report by Mike Hager