B.C. election 2020: NDP candidate Ronna Rae Leonard projected to win in Courtenay-Comox

Global News is projecting that Ronna Rae Leonard is going to win in Courtenay-Comox.

Leonard ended the night on Saturday with 47.6 per cent of the vote, beating out BC Liberal candidate Brennan Day who earned 29.5 per cent of vote cast.

This was a huge win for the NDP party and a key riding to watch — with the results coming much faster and more decisively than the last time around.

The Vancouver Island riding was too close to call on election night in 2017, and the question of which party would form government ultimately came down to its result.

When the clock struck midnight on that past election night, Leonard was just nine votes ahead of BC Liberal Jim Benninger.

2:05 Decision BC: Courtenay-Comox battleground riding

Leonard was eventually declared the winner by only 189 votes.

The BC Liberals, who’d been just one seat short of a majority government, were stunned as to how they could have lost by nearly 2,000 votes compared to 2013.

Benninger decided not to run again, but Leonard was back in the game, saying how important it is for the public to know that every vote counts.

The BC Conservatives did not run a candidate in this riding this election, allowing BC Green Party candidate Gillian Anderson to come a close third to Day with 22.4 per cent of the vote.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, an unprecedented number of mail-in ballots were requested across B.C. this election. As mail-in ballots cannot be counted until after election night, these results are not final.