Until

the final count came in yesterday, just how much was hanging in the balance? Like how many potential outcomes were on the table as those vote by vote recounts were going on?

So the government would need 47 votes to form a majority in B.C. So on election night on October 19th, as polls kind of stuttered to a close, it was just this really frustrating two-post result where we had 46 NDP seats, 45 BC conservative seats, and two green seats. There's no majority in that scenario. So then you're thrown into these ideas of what can happen. And it sort of brings us back to what happened in 2017, where we had the NDP win 41 seats. We had the B.C. Liberals win 43. So I know it looks like they won, but they didn't. And then we had the Greens with three. And what happened was that the NDP and the Greens then went back and made an agreement. And we actually ended up with an NDP government.

And so Monday, B.C. elections revealed what we're calling, I guess, the official results of the election, though I gather and we can talk about it a little bit. There's still some recounting to do. But what are the final seat tallies and what does this mean in terms of who governs and how?

Yeah. OK, so I said that on election night on October 19th, we had 46 NDP, 45 conservative, two green. After yesterday, now we have 47 NDP. So they do have that majority they were looking for, 44 conservative, and two green. So now the NDP has a majority, means that they're technically able to probably elect a speaker from their own party, and they shouldn't have to absolutely rely on the Greens to pass key confidence motions. And yesterday, the BC NDP leader, David Eby, did go to the Lieutenant General and she gave the go-ahead to form a government. However, there's two judicial recounts that still need to happen. And so David Eby was being quizzed today about when are you going to be sitting? Like, when is the legislature going to be reconvening? He says he wants to have a fall sitting. He wants to have a cabinet in plenitude, like the speaker. But he doesn't know yet when that's going to happen.

Does anybody think it's likely? And, you know, you mentioned the margin of victory, like in the 20s and the 30s. The results could change by any significant amount. I know these votes have already been counted like extremely closely, right?

I guess the answer is we just don't know. And I don't really want to like put myself in the decision of making this, of being like, oh yeah, sure, they won't change. I mean, they probably won't change, but you know, these are very, very close margins. Like it's possible. So that's why everyone's being quite careful still at this point. But the assumption is that, yes, it probably will be an NDP government continuing. So

let's take that assumption just for the purposes of discussing how the heck this is going to work. You mentioned 47 seats. That is, I believe, the slimmest majority possible. What does that mean for how the legislature will have to operate, assuming EB can form a government? So

they really need to make sure that every single MLA is present for really key confidence missions. The joke in BC is that nobody better miss the ferry over to Vancouver Island. Legislature is located in Victoria. Oh, right. Like that's kind of the joke, like nobody better call in Zikno. And there's questions today, you know, the legislative reporters are asking David Evening, you know, would you consider having a green MLA as the speaker? Would you consider having a conservative candidate as the speaker? And he's like, sure, I'd be willing to work across the aisle with anyone. You know, he does have one really clear line, and we'll probably be discussing this a little later, you know, and says that he needs to work with people who can reject hate, conspiracy and division, willing to fight hate and racism. But he is trying to sort of extend his arms across the aisle, but from this slim majority position, meaning that he's not white as beholden to the Greens as it would

have been before.