BC Conservatives open 8-point lead after Eby calls snap election, but voters say it's too soon

BC Conservatives hold an 8-point lead over the governing NDP after Premier David Eby called a snap election September 24, according to an Angus Reid Institute poll conducted the same day.

The Conservatives registered 43% support compared to 35% for the NDP — a sharp reversal from ten days earlier, when the NDP held a 4-point lead. The shift came amid leadership turmoil on the Conservative side: Kerry-Lynne Findlay resigned as BC Conservative leader September 22, just 48 hours before Eby's election call. Lorne Doerkson is now interim leader and will become permanent leader if the party forms government.

Election day is set for October 24, 2026.

But the poll reveals deep public skepticism about the timing. Two-thirds of respondents said it is "too soon" to go to the polls — including 71% of BC Conservative voters and 52% of BC NDP voters. Two-thirds (65%) said Eby is putting his own interests ahead of the province's.

Still, voter commitment to existing allegiances is solid. Sixty-five percent of 2024 NDP voters said they will vote NDP again; 85% of past BC Conservative voters are ready to re-commit. One-fifth of voters remain undecided, and only 35% say they are "very certain" about which party they will support.

Shachi Kurl, president of Angus Reid Institute, said: "There's a lot of unhappiness with this government and now there's some, 'How dare you go to the polls.'"

The Conservatives are under their third leader in less than a year. John Rustad led the party before the 2024 election, when he was narrowly defeated by Eby and the BC NDP. Rustad was ousted from leadership in December 2025 amid caucus discontent. Findlay won the subsequent leadership race "by the slimmest of margins."

Hours after Eby's election call, the BC Conservatives struck a deal to bring back 7 MLAs who had defected to CentreBC, offsetting some of the party turbulence.

Former NDP cabinet minister Katrina Chen said that Eby's snap-election decision is "risky" and that Eby "still has lot of work to do" to prove his policies put people first. Two senior NDP figures announced they will not seek re-election: Ravi Kahlon, cabinet minister with housing, jobs and health portfolios and a former leadership contender, and Brenda Bailey, former finance minister who stepped back from that role after a cancer diagnosis this summer.