---
title: "Emily Lowan wins Saanich North and the Islands, keeping BC Greens in the legislature"
description: "Emily Lowan, 26, led in Saanich North and the Islands with 14,295 votes as of 11:37 p.m. Pacific on election night, keeping her seat as BC Green Party leader and the youngest major party leader in Canada."
canonical_url: "https://voche.me/bc/provincial-2026/news/emily-lowan-wins-saanich-north-islands-bc-election-2026"
last_updated: "2026-10-25T07:09:51.078Z"
---

[Emily Lowan](/bc/provincial-2026/candidates/emily-lowan) led in [Saanich North and the Islands](/bc/provincial-2026/races/mla/saanich-north-and-the-islands) with 14,295 votes as of 11:37 p.m. Pacific on October 24, 2026, according to Elections BC. Conservative candidate Ryan Windsor had 9,319 votes. BC NDP candidate Kala Bryson had 5,103 votes. CentreBC candidate Richard Smith had 683 votes. Elections BC had 98.13% of ballot boxes reporting at that time.

Lowan, 26, became [BC Green Party](/bc/provincial-2026/parties/bc-green-party) leader in September 2025. Daily Hive described her as Canada's youngest major political party leader. CHEK News reported she succeeded Sonia Furstenau as leader and that before entering politics she was a climate activist who led a campaign at the University of Victoria to remove the school's investments from fossil fuel companies.

Her seat keeps the BC Greens in the legislature. The party's previous leader in the 2024 election was Sonia Furstenau, who held the same Saanich North and the Islands seat. CHEK News reported the riding includes North Saanich, Brentwood Bay, Sidney, and the Southern Gulf Islands.

As of 11:28 p.m. Pacific, Elections BC reported the party leading in 2 of 93 districts overall, with 194,064 votes and 11.01% of the total vote counted. A majority requires 47 districts; the Conservative Party led in 64.

[Jeremy Valeriote](/bc/provincial-2026/candidates/jeremy-valeriote), the BC Green candidate in [West Vancouver-Sea to Sky](/bc/provincial-2026/races/mla/west-vancouver-sea-to-sky), led with 10,501 votes as of 11:37 p.m. Pacific, according to Elections BC. Conservative candidate Ayla Dumais had 8,475 votes in that district.

These results are preliminary. Elections BC says vote-by-mail, assisted telephone, and absentee ballots will be counted about two weeks after election day. The final count is set for November 6, 2026. Every vote figure in this article comes from Elections BC. Follow the count at Elections BC, which updates every few minutes. The [BC provincial election news page](/bc/provincial-2026/news) carries each new brief as the count moves.

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