---
title: "Ladysmith-Oceanside heads to judicial recount as NDP leads by 50 votes"
description: "Elections BC's final count puts BC NDP candidate Stephanie Higginson ahead of Conservative Kris McNichol by 50 votes in Ladysmith-Oceanside, triggering an automatic judicial recount under BC election law."
canonical_url: "https://voche.me/bc/provincial-2026/news/ladysmith-oceanside-judicial-recount-november-2026"
last_updated: "2026-11-10T19:42:02.808Z"
---

BC NDP candidate [Stephanie Higginson](/bc/provincial-2026/candidates/stephanie-higginson) leads Conservative [Kris McNichol](/bc/provincial-2026/candidates/kris-mcnichol) by 50 votes in [Ladysmith-Oceanside](/bc/provincial-2026/races/mla/ladysmith-oceanside) after Elections BC completed its final count, CHEK News reported on November 9, 2026. The result triggers an automatic judicial recount under BC election law.

Elections BC's final count, as of November 8, 2026 at 4:21 p.m. Pacific, shows Higginson with 14,354 votes and McNichol with 14,304. These are unofficial results until the Chief Electoral Officer declares them official, which must happen no later than November 10, 2026.

## Why a judicial recount follows

Under BC election law, a judicial recount is automatically ordered when the top two candidates in a district finish within 100 votes of each other after the final count. A margin of 50 votes is well within that threshold.

The deadline to file an application for a judicial recount is three days after the Chief Electoral Officer's official declaration of results. The declaration must come no later than November 10, 2026, which means the application window closes as late as November 16, 2026.

A judicial recount is a court-supervised review of all ballots in the district. A judge examines disputed ballots and decides whether any should be counted differently from how they were counted in the final count. The result may change, or it may be confirmed unchanged.

## Kelowna Centre also heading to recount

Ladysmith-Oceanside is one of two BC districts heading to a judicial recount after the final count. In [Kelowna Centre](/bc/provincial-2026/races/mla/kelowna-centre), Conservative incumbent [Kristina Loewen](/bc/provincial-2026/candidates/kristina-loewen) leads BC NDP candidate [Loyal Wooldridge](/bc/provincial-2026/candidates/loyal-wooldridge) by 43 votes: 11,689 to 11,646. That is the second consecutive recount in Kelowna Centre. The 2024 provincial election recount there changed nothing.

## Province-wide picture

The Conservative Party of BC holds 64 seats and the BC NDP holds 27, with the BC Green Party holding 2, in Elections BC's final count. A seat change in Ladysmith-Oceanside would not affect the Conservative majority: 47 seats are needed to hold a majority in the 93-seat BC Legislature, and the Conservatives hold 64. Full district-by-district results are at [results.elections.bc.ca](https://results.elections.bc.ca).

## Sitemap

See the full [sitemap](/bc/provincial-2026/sitemap.md) for all pages.