BC Conservatives win majority government as Doerkson becomes premier-designate

Lorne Doerkson’s BC Conservatives won a resounding victory in British Columbia’s provincial election on Saturday, October 24, with Global News projecting a majority government less than an hour after polls closed. The party was projected to win 64 seats, a total no party has surpassed since the BC Liberals won 77 seats in 2001. It marks the first time the Conservatives have formed government in the province since 1933.

Doerkson said he was “deeply humbled” by the victory and vowed to earn back the trust British Columbians placed in his party. Speaking at his first official news conference on Sunday, he said voters in every corner of the province, from the Peace to the island and from the Kootenays to the Coast, had chosen change.

“I’m very excited that yesterday British Columbians chose change and they chose that.”

The 57-year-old was born in New Westminster in 1968 and grew up in Surrey and Salmon Arm before moving to Williams Lake in 2001. He was first elected provincially in the Cariboo-Chilcotin riding in 2020 as a BC Liberal, then re-elected in 2024 as a BC Conservative. Before politics, he sold advertising for the Salmon Arm Observer and worked as a publisher for Black Press Media newspapers, including the Williams Lake Tribune and 100 Mile Free Press.

Doerkson also rode bareback on the rodeo circuit and referenced that experience while campaigning, often in connection with emergency department closures in hospitals across his riding. He told an audience in Cache Creek on October 4 that he had been to many hospitals but never one that was closed.

Outgoing premier David Eby triggered the election less than two years into his mandate, initially citing U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs before shifting his focus to affordability issues. Doerkson said he had already spoken with Lieutenant Governor Wendy Cocchia and named Kim Henderson as chair of the government’s transition team.

Asked about Trump reposting about the Conservative win on Truth Social, Doerkson stressed he was an ally of British Columbia. He said his focus would be to supercharge the economy and support industries that could protect the province against such attacks.