BC Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau lost her race for re-election in Saturday’s B.C. election — but her party appears set to retain official party status after two new Green candidates were elected.
Furstenau was competing in her new riding of Victoria-Beacon Hill against incumbent NDP candidate Grace Lore, who served as minister of children and family development in the last provincial cabinet.
Although she led early in the night, Furstenau ultimately lost to Lore by 13 points.
“The challenge was a little bit more than we could do,” Furstenau told her supporters at the Greens’ campaign headquarters in Victoria after the result was declared.
The riding has long been an NDP stronghold on Vancouver Island — making Furstenau’s decision to compete there after representing Cowichan Valley for seven years a political gamble, and one of the must-watch races of the election.
Her loss puts the Greens in a tough position: potentially holding the balance of power in the legislature but having to quickly choose a new leader between a pair of newcomers.
Rob Botterell retained the only other riding previously held by the Greens, Saanich North and the Islands, which was represented by interim party leader Adam Olsen before Olsen chose to not run for re-election.
And Jeremy Valeriote finally broke through in West Vancouver-Sea to Sky, winning by over 600 votes after finishing a close second in the 2020 election by just 60 votes.
Furstenau said Saturday she would offer her mentorship and guidance to whoever the next leader is, calling the election “a passing of the torch.”
“It does appear that the Greens are still going to play a pretty pivotal role in the B.C. legislature,” she said.
The razor-thin race between the BC NDP and the BC Conservatives saw the Greens’ share of the popular vote fall to 8.2 per cent from 15.1 per cent in the 2020 election.
The Greens entered the election aiming to maintain their official status in the legislature, which requires a party hold at least two seats.
Furstenau impressed voters during the campaign, including at the party leaders’ debate, where she presented herself as a thoughtful alternative to NDP Leader David Eby and BC Conservative Leader John Rustad.
But the Greens still faced an uphill climb after Olsen chose not to seek re-election, and Furstenau’s riding change added another degree of difficulty.
She made the switch after boundary changes for her old riding of Cowichan Valley made her choose to move back to the Victoria area, where she worked as a teacher before entering politics.
The Greens ran candidates in 68 out of the 93 ridings in the province.
Fursteanu and Olsen, along with then- leader Andrew Weaver, sent a shockwave through B.C. politics in 2017 when they were all elected to office and gave the Greens official party status for the first time in its history.
The Greens effectively ended the 16-year reign of what used to be the BC Liberals, when Weaver and his party entered into a supply-and-confidence agreement that lifted the NDP to power under Premier John Horgan. Furstenau was on the Greens’ negotiating team for that deal.
Furstenau was elected party leader in 2020 after Weaver resigned, with Olsen serving as interim leader during the leadership campaign.
While Fursteanu and Olsen managed to win re-election in the 2020 race, the Greens were unable to hold onto Weaver’s seat or flip any other ridings.
That put a big question mark on how well the party would fare this time around — particularly in a remarkably different political landscape, after the collapse of BC United and the rise of the BC Conservatives.