Photo: The Canadian Press

NDP Leader John Horgan celebrates his election win in the British Columbia provincial election in downtown Vancouver Saturday.

UPDATE: 1:05 p.m.

After the BC NDP majority government victory last night, NDP Leader John Horgan said he was going to wait for the final counting before asking Lieutenant Governor Janet Austin to form government.

"This morning I spoke with the Lieutenant Governor and advised her that we were going to wait for the counting of the final ballots," said Horgan in a press conference Sunday morning.

"I want to tell a story about that," Horgan went on to say. "After the last election, you'll remember the most famous constituency in all of B.C. was Courtenay-Comox, [where] our candidate was ahead by nine votes on election night. Taking the ferry back to Victoria the next day, I was in the cafeteria and a woman came up to me and said, 'Ronna-Rea Leonard won by more than nine votes, I know that because I mailed my vote in - so she won by ten.'

"And that reminded me how important every vote is, and it reminded me that there are hundreds of thousands of people who are waiting for their votes to count."

Horgan said he will be returning to Victoria on Monday.

ORIGINAL: noon

British Columbia's election results show a divided province with Liberal victories in many rural ridings and the New Democrats in urban areas, but Premier John Horgan says his government will be influenced by good ideas, not politics.

Horgan says now that he has a majority government he plans to spend more time outside of the legislature meeting people across the province.

With more than 500,000 mail-in ballots still to be counted, the results on election night gave the NDP 53 seats, the Liberals 27, the Greens three seats, while four ridings were undecided.

In his post-election news conference Sunday, Horgan says his government will be open to ideas from across B.C. and party lines.

He says he doesn't care where an idea comes from, if it makes sense, the government will implement it no matter the geographical area or political perspective.

Horgan credits the NDP win during the COVID-19 pandemic with the party's political vision, saying that mainstream values are New Democrat values.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau congratulated Horgan on the victory, saying he is looking forward to working with the premier on the response to the global pandemic.

- The Canadian Press