VICTORIA — As British Columbia’s two major party leaders crisscrossed the province during the past 28 days, they went to great lengths to underscore the gravity of the decision voters were about to make.

“This is one of the most important elections of a generation,” Premier Gordon Campbell repeated at almost every stop of his campaign, trying to convince every voter he met that the financial well-being of the province hung in the balance.

“This is a critical election. There’s so much at stake,” NDP leader Carole James told voters during her tour, warning that the province’s natural resources were at risk.

But voters demonstrated they were not that impressed. Only about 48 per cent of eligible voters turned out on Tuesday.

Most of those who did vote opted for the status quo.

As of Wednesday, the preliminary count gave the B.C. Liberals 49 seats, with 36 going to the NDP. The Liberals led the popular vote by 4.17 percentage points.

In the 2005 election — before six seats were added through redistribution — the Liberals won 46 seats, with the NDP taking 33.

The Liberals led the popular vote in that race by 4.28 percentage points.

If results remain unchanged through the final count, the Liberals will have emerged with a 13-seat advantage in the legislature, the same as last time, and with almost the exact same lead in overall popular support.

Some seats were shuffled back and forth, with the NDP taking Stikine and Burnaby-Deer Lake from the Liberals, and the Liberals taking Vancouver-Fairview from the NDP.

The Liberals won five of the six new seats, with the NDP taking one on Vancouver Island.

How to interpret the outcome will be up to the parties, the pundits and the public to decide, though Campbell said he saw the result as a clear invitation to move forward.

“I think it was a clear mandate for managing the economy with stability and confidence as we move ahead,” he said.

Campbell said his top priority will be working to ensure the stability of B.C.’s economy, but added this will not detract from his focus on other key issues such as health care, the environment, education and developing a lasting relationship with first nations.

Before he can implement new policies, he will have to pick a new cabinet and introduce a new budget.

Campbell’s Attorney-General, Wally Oppal, was hanging onto his seat in Delta South by a razor-thin margin of just two votes.

Independent Vicki Huntington, who trailed Oppal, said she will seek a recount, which could include more than 300 absentee ballots and a review of 56 spoiled ballots, meaning Oppal’s future is far from certain.

If Oppal loses, Campbell will have to find a new attorney-general, perhaps Mike de Jong, who was Campbell’s house leader and who practised as a lawyer in Abbotsford before he was first elected in 1994.

All of the other members of Campbell’s former cabinet who chose to run for re-election won their seats, some by very slim margins.

In Saanich North and the Islands, Murray Coell won by 395 votes. In Oak Bay-Gordon Head, Ida Chong won by 530 votes.

Several women were added to Campbell’s team, including Stephanie Cadieux in Surrey-Panorama and Mary McNeil in Vancouver-False Creek. Margaret MacDiarmid, a former B.C. Medical Association president and Moira Stilwell, a nuclear medicine specialist, were also elected in Vancouver. There was speculation one of them might be a future health minister.

George Abbott, minister of health for the past four years, said he had no idea if he will retain the demanding portfolio. “Certainly, the health ministry has been the toughest job I’ve had in my life,” said Abbott.

Asked about MacDiarmid and Stilwell, Abbott said he was “enormously impressed by both of these highly knowledgeable, remarkably well qualified women.”

jfowlie@vancouversun.com

With files from Pamela Fayerman