Poll puts Doerkson ahead of Eby as B.C.’s preferred premier

An Angus Reid poll conducted from Oct. 15-18 found the B.C. Conservatives ahead of the NDP in voting intentions, while the contest for best potential premier was closer: Lorne Doerkson led David Eby by two points, 36 per cent to 34 per cent. Angus Reid President Shachi Kurl discussed those results on Monday. The poll surveyed 793 respondents.

The vote-intention figures are not included in the Vancouver Sun excerpt, so the size of the Conservatives’ lead in that measure cannot be stated from it. Castanet’s headline separately reported a five-point Conservative lead days before the election.

That figure and the poll’s two-point preferred-premier margin refer to different measures; the excerpts do not establish whether the vote-intention result is the same poll or give enough detail to reconcile the figures. The poll also put the B.C. Greens at eight per cent among decided and leaning voters. For the preferred-premier measure, the gap had been five points on Oct.

5 and eight points on Sept. 24, making the latest reported two-point margin narrower than those earlier comparisons. Kurl said the parties differed in voter retention: 89 per cent of people who voted Conservative in 2024 said they planned to support the party again, compared with 74 per cent of 2024 B.C. NDP voters returning to the party.

She also said the NDP faced a harder task in keeping supporters and getting them to vote. Those are poll findings and Kurl’s interpretation, not a measure of how many people will ultimately cast ballots. The Globe and Mail’s account places the polling contest against a campaign in which Eby presented himself as the leader best positioned to stand up to Donald Trump for B.C.

Eby also emphasized proposals to raise taxes on people earning more than $190,000, increase funding for health care and cap some grocery prices. The account describes those policies as aimed at energizing the party’s centre-left base. The Globe and Mail also reported that the BC Conservatives had been close to collapse when the writ dropped on Sept.

22, but had since regrouped and become a strong challenger to the NDP. This gives context to the party’s position in the poll without establishing what drove the shift or how voters assessed the campaign’s policies. The general election is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 24. Several advance polling stations are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

PT, and polling stations on election day are also scheduled to operate during those hours. The poll’s findings describe voter intentions before the vote; they do not determine the result.