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Much has been said since Tuesday’s provincial election about B.C.’s urban-rural political divide. Most commentators have looked at which parties took the most ridings in B.C.’s various regions, but a closer look at voting in the initial count reveals interesting patterns.

First, let’s consider B.C.-wide voting, which establishes a baseline of support for the parties. The Liberals received the most votes — 735,105 of the nearly 1.8 million ballots cast in the province and 40.86 per cent of the votes. Across B.C., 717,073 folks voted for the NDP, which received 39.85 per cent of the votes, while the Green party got 301,220 votes or 16.74 per cent.

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After the initial count, the Liberals had 43 seats, the NDP had 41, while the Greens took three of the 87 seats in the legislature, although that’s likely to change after recounts and absentee ballots.

While NDP supporters are celebrating their success, vibrating at the possibility of NDP Leader John Horgan becoming premier in a coalition with Green Leader Andrew Weaver, the NDP’s share of the vote barely moved from the 2013 election, when it received 39.72 per cent of the ballots — an increase of just 0.14 percentage points.