The NDP's lack of success outside of Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland cost the party the seats they needed to form a government in the 2017 provincial election.

And depending on the results of recounts and absentee ballots, it could hand the B.C. Liberals a razor-thin majority.

In all regions of the province outside of the Lower Mainland, the NDP saw a drop in its vote total compared to 2013.

Note: numbers for the Green Party may be inflated because the party did not run a full slate of candidates in 2013

And a quick look at where NDP Leader John Horgan spent his campaign suggests that areas outside of the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island were less important to his party's strategy.

UBC political science professor Gerald Baier said ignoring these rural ridings is a risky electoral prospect.

"For the NDP, that strategy of staying in the Lower Mainland paid off because they did flip the seats they needed to flip," Baier said. "But they came up short because they didn't go up north."

"So it really is consequential for them now.

"I think it also speaks to the enormous challenge the NDP have to get over that hump. If you focus on one place you have the potential to lose in another. And there just really is very little margin for error in the NDP."

Did Greens help NDP?

The NDP did manage to put together enough seats to cost the Liberals their majority by taking enough of their seats in the Lower Mainland, Baier said.

The Liberals' policies and record appeared to fall flat with Lower Mainland voters and the NDP had an efficient strategy there.

B.C. Liberal leader Christy Clark makes a campaign stop in Prince George. The Liberals were dominant in mainland B.C. ridings outside of the Lower Mainland, but ultimately lost seats. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)

"Realistically, they could've got one or two outside of the Lower Mainland, but they managed to get the big ones in the Lower Mainland," he said.

"So from a bang for your buck perspective, I think they did the right thing."

He also thinks that in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island, the NDP may have benefitted from a three-way split between themselves, the Liberals and the Green Party.

"There were people who said they're not ready to vote NDP, but they're fed up with the Liberals, so they park their vote with the Greens," he said.

'Too many seats'

While it's tempting to view this as another example of the age-old urban-rural divide, Baier said the nature of some of the ridings the NDP won complicates that.

Many Vancouver Island ridings have elements of both urban and rural communities and communities like Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows and Mission blur the line between urban and rural.

NDP Leader John Horgan holds a copy of the party's election platform. A UBC political science professor said some of the party's policies had great appeal for voters in ridings that straddle the distinction between urban and rural. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)

He said part of the NDP strategy was successfully appealing to those ridings.

"One of the key campaign planks was eliminating tolls and I think people have a daily reminder of the election promise that's in their favour," he said.

Still, he does not think parties can bank on success by focusing solely on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland.

"There's too many seats outside of the Lower Mainland," he said. "Just like you can't win Canada without Quebec, You have to be able to have some presence in the rest of the province to win.

"If you [try], it's hubris. You can't pull it off."