With just two candidates, both new to running in provincial politics, the Boundary-Similkameen riding is one of the tightest races, according to figures provided through 338Canada.com.
It’s also a quickly changing race.
Data from Oct. 3 already shows the BC Liberals pulling ahead, absorbing the support from voters who were thinking about the Green party, but who don’t have a Green candidate to support.
With more than three weeks still to go before the Oct. 24 election date, that number is likely to change, as it already has.
The Oct. 3 information, the latest at the time of print, showed the BC Liberals with 50 per cent of voter support, to the BC NDP’s 41.1 per cent, and the BC Conservatives’ 5.5 per cent.
The BC Conservatives and BC Wexit party had their candidates confirmed on Saturday by Elections BC. No polling data at the time of print showed the BC Wexit Party.
The race between BC NDP candidate Roly Russell and BC Liberal candidate Petra Veintimilla was within a one per cent difference last week.
Polling aggregator 338Canada.com listed Russell with a slight lead of 41.8 per cent compared to Veintimilla’s 40.8, on Oct. 2.
At the start, the BC Liberal party was leading with 39.3 per cent to the BC NDP’s 38.8 per cent in the riding on Sept. 23, the first date for which 338 listed aggregated numbers.
On Sept. 29, the race grew tighter, with the BC NDP taking a minute lead in the riding of 40.9 per cent over 40.7 for the BC Liberals.
With COVID-19 preventing many traditional forms of campaigning, how the race will end remains a mystery. Early polling may matter even more than in previous years, with over 400,000 mail-in ballots requested across the province in the first week after the election was declared.