The HUB Online Networks. Live 2020 BC Election Coverage

The 2020 BC election coverage started at 7:30pm and went until 11:45pm on October 24. Gareth Smart from the HUB Online Network and Barbara Roden of the Ashcroft-Cache Creek Journal co-hosted this four hour event.

The election cycle was quick and there were several ups and downs during the campaigns. In the local riding of Fraser Nicola there were five Candidates. Arron Sumexheltza of the NDP, Jonah Timms of the BC Greens, Independents Mike Bhanghu and Dennis Adamson, as well as the Incumbent Jackie Tegart for the Liberal Party.

The leader of the main parties that are followed throughout the evening include Andrew Wilkinson for the Liberal party, Sonia Furstenau for the BC Greens and the previous Premiere John Horgan who called this election in late September.

At the beginning of the live event a video package was played to show who the candidates are, who the leaders are, and some of the political ads that were put out by the parties and local candidates. Other ridings that were followed through the night included: Abbotsford-Mission, North Island, Chilliwack-Kent and both North and South Kamloops.

The voting booths closed at 8:00pm and votes started to be counted. After 45 minutes results started coming in by 9:30pm a picture had started to form. One that by the end of the night showed that the barring some huge upset in the mail in ballots (see below) that the NDP would win a majority of 55 seats in the Legislative Assembly, with the Liberals having 31 seats and the Greens keeping three seats.

In Fraser Nicola at the end of the night, the incumbent Jackie Tegart was still in the lead with just over 400 votes.

What made this election unique was the mail in ballot situation, with 70,000 mail in ballots requested presumably due to COVID-19. Fraser Nicola is responsible for 2500 of those ballots, and the official results of the election cannot be called until those votes are added into the totals which will take place Nov 6/2020.

Before the election started the NDP was in power with a minority Government which had the Green party holding the balance of power. At one point all parties had agreed not to politicize the pandemic, and the NDP and the Greens had an alliance both verbally and on paper. According to Jackie Tegart in an interview the HUB Online Network had done with her, she stated that "John Horgan would be betraying the trust of the political system and the level of trust that was built during the pandemic". This gamble seems to have paid off for the NDP who now have a clear road ahead for the next four years.