On the night of B.C.’s first ever pandemic election, amid record-breaking daily new COVID-19 cases, candidates swapped big election parties for more subdued evenings at home with family and friends — and braced for the fact that come the end of the night, they might not know whether to celebrate or concede.
“It’s going to be very different this year,” said Mitzi Dean, NDP candidate for Esquimalt-Metchosin. Dean said her 10-year-old daughter, Pandora, attended a Halloween gathering with four friends on election day, and Dean promised her that they could have matching witch costumes, “so we might be sitting around with our broomsticks and witches’ hats [as the results come in].”
About half a dozen campaign staff from Dean’s team and NDP Leader John Horgan’s team gathered in their campaign office on Goldstream Avenue to watch the results. “You can’t even order pizza to share,” Dean said, since provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry’s guidelines rule out buffet-style food.
Rishi Sharma, Liberal candidate for Saanich South, spent election night with his wife, Amy, daughters, Amiyah, 12, Eisha, 9 and Sophia, 6, his parents, his brother and a small number of campaign staff who were in his bubble. Anticipating visitors to his home, Sharma set up a table outside so he could chat with people from a safe distance.
In the Victoria-Beacon Hill riding, B.C. Liberal candidate Karen Bill planned an evening at the home of her campaign manager, Tobie Myers, and a few others from the team. Election-night snacks, including a charcuterie platter, chicken satays and lime cheesecake, were individually portioned on plates, so they were COVID-safe, Bill said.
Green candidate Kate O’Connor, running against NDP incumbent Lana Popham in the Saanich South riding, said after sign-waving at three locations in her riding Saturday morning, she spent the afternoon calling supporters on Zoom to get out the vote.
Election night was to be a party of two, with O’Connor and her best friend sharing a Dairy Queen ice cream cake.
O’Connor admitted she was a bit sad to be missing out on the traditional election-night watch parties, “but in a pandemic, this is the best it’s going to be.”
Horgan spent the day sign-waving with fellow NDP candidates near Science World in the Vancouver-False Creek riding and on election night, he was at NDP headquarters at the Pinnacle Hotel Vancouver Harbourfront.
B.C. Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson voted Saturday morning at the Hellenic Community Centre in the riding of Vancouver-Quilchena. After a day of making calls, he planned to have dinner at home with his family and then watch the results come in from the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre, said spokesperson Carlie Pochynok.
B.C. Green Leader Sonia Furstenau was in her riding of Cowichan Valley Saturday to be with her team and her community, said spokesman Stefan Jonsson.
“She may be the leader of the party, but she knows how much they have all put into this campaign and she wants them all to be recognized,” said Jonsson.
Furstenau watched the results come in from the Delta Ocean Pointe Resort in Victoria surrounded by husband Blaise Salmon, her children and close friends and advisers.
On Saturday afternoon, Popham was on her way to drop off Rogers’ chocolates to campaign volunteers before settling down to make a vegetarian dinner at home and watch the results come in with her partner, Rob.
Popham, who has represented the riding since 2009, said it would be difficult to not spend the night with hard-working campaign staff, but many planned to gather online via Zoom after the polls closed.
Popham said it would be odd not knowing the final results by the end of the night, but she said the last provincial election, on May 9, 2017, was a test run, when the Liberals under Christy Clark won 43 seats, only to be ousted 20 days later by an NDP-Green coalition that merged their 41 and three seats, respectively, to form government.
— With files from Cindy E. Harnett
