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VICTORIA — B.C.’s political parties are jockeying for any strategic advantage they can get as the most important byelection in provincial history plays out in Nanaimo.

At stake is the survival of the NDP minority government. If the B.C. Liberals can win on Jan. 30, they’ll deadlock the legislature in a tie and likely force the premature end of the NDP-Green power-sharing deal that has ruled for almost a year and a half.

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But that’s a big if. The NDP has solidly thumped its opponents in Nanaimo for 14 of the last 16 elections, dating back to 1963.

The B.C. Liberals have tried everything to pry the riding from the grasp of New Democrats. The party has run business leaders, former mayors, and most recently in 2017 a young charismatic tech-sector entrepreneur named Paris Gaudet. Her appeal to the modern, changing, face of the Harbour City was a vision to turn Nanaimo into Vancouver Island’s new tech hub. It didn’t work. The NDP margin of victory only grew wider, capturing 46.54 per cent of the popular vote to the Liberals’ 32.54 per cent.