Oct 25 (Reuters) – The opposition Conservative Party won an election in the Canadian province of British Columbia for the first time in nearly 100 years, promising to ramp up liquefied natural gas production, provisional results showed on Sunday.
• The result marks an end to nine years of power for the left-of-center New Democrats, who voiced opposition to new oil pipelines and supported a ban on tankers along the province’s northern coast
• The right-leaning Conservatives won 64 of the 93 seats and the New Democrats won 27. It is the first Conservative provincial election win since 1928
• The Conservatives pledged to double natural gas production by 2032 and more than triple it by 2035
• “I believe in energy… We will cut red tape like it’s never been cut before,” Conservative leader Lorne Doerkson said in his victory speech
• Doerkson, who will become the next premier of the province, promised to “supercharge” BC. The province will host a business summit in Vancouver next year
• The Conservatives promised to end emissions limits, replace the province’s carbon tax framework and reach out to energy providers that had left the province’s LNG sector since 2018, including ExxonMobil, Chevron and Woodside
• Polls showed voters were focused on cost-of-living issues, healthcare, and the ongoing trade war with US President Donald Trump
• New Democrat Premier David Eby had called for a strong mandate to confront Trump’s tariff threats
(Reporting by Nivedita Balu, writing by David Ljunggren and Maria Cheng; Editing by Nia Williams and Christina Fincher)
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