NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh pauses after leaving flowers at a memorial during a vigil for the victims of an attack that killed 11 people at a Filipino heritage festival Saturday evening, in Vancouver, on Sunday, April 27, 2025. (Credit: Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)
British Columbians are going to the polls today amid an outpouring of grief over an attack at a Filipino festival in Vancouver where 11 people were killed and dozens more were hurt on Saturday.
Mourners and politicians, including NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, attended a vigil Sunday night for the victims, who ranged in age from five to 65. Singh said he had attended the Lapu Lapu Day festival but left just minutes before a man in an SUV mowed down people on a street lined with food trucks.
The three main political parties head into the federal election mostly balanced in B.C., but an expert says there could be a shakeup in the province at the end of the night.
There are 14 Liberal seats, 14 Conservatives, 12 NDP, a lone Green Party member and one vacant seat, but cratering poll numbers for the New Democrats mean many B.C. seats are up for grabs, and two federal party leaders could be out of a job by the end of the night.
Both Singh’s Burnaby riding and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May’s Saanich—Gulf Islands seat are far from a sure thing.
“That is probably one of the big B.C. stories. Are these leaders going to survive? Jagmeet Singh, his riding is absolutely not safe at this point. Neither are many traditionally safe NDP seats,” said Greg Millard, part of the political science faculty at B.C.’s Kwantlen Polytechnic University.
“I think Elizabeth May, a long-standing party leader, she too is in some jeopardy in Saanich—Gulf Islands. So, I think that’s a big story. Will B.C. be the end of the line for two of the leaders of two smaller parties?”
Millard says the province could be important in this election, perhaps not in deciding the overall winner, but in giving a government majority versus minority power.
Millard estimates there are more than a dozen tight races in the province that could “flip” as Singh’s NDP dropped in the polls amid an emerging narrative that this election was a choice between Mark Carney’s Liberals and the Conservatives led by Pierre Poilievre.
For more, read The Canadian Press’ story here.