New Westminster voter Marsha Roberts had a short answer to a question about her biggest concern in the federal election. Read More
Burnaby ridings held by NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and longtime MP Peter Julian may be in play for the Liberals, as polls show a surge in support
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New Westminster voter Marsha Roberts had a short answer to a question about her biggest concern in the federal election.
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“It’s about Trump and his ridiculous ideas,” said the administrative assistant, referring to the U.S. president’s tariffs and statements about annexing Canada. “It’s really scary.
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“And then housing, there’s not enough money for people to live on and what everybody else is worried about,” she added.
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Her answer about who would be best to deal with those issues encapsulates how much this election’s trajectory has been upended — even in solidly NDP ridings such as New Westminster-Burnaby-Maillardville.
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Sunrise
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Roberts has voted NDP in the past but is wavering. Standing under grey, drizzly skies on Tuesday, she said: “I really like Mark Carney,” though she was undecided at the moment.
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On paper, the riding, which has been held by longtime NDP MP Peter Julian, and Burnaby Central, where NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is running for re-election, look like bedrock NDP-orange territory.
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Julian has held his seat, known as New Westminster Burnaby before the most recent redistribution, since 2004, when he won it back from its electorate’s brief dalliance with a populist candidate.
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Singh’s riding, redrawn from the Burnaby-South riding he won in a 2019 byelection, has NDP roots stretching more than 40 years
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However, Trump taking office, Justin Trudeau stepping down as prime minister and Carney’s Liberal leadership win “repainted” B.C.’s electoral map, according to Angus Reid Institute pollster Shachi Kurl.
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The decidedly Conservative blue shade of the electoral landscape at the start of 2025, with the party enjoying 54 per cent of the decided and leaning vote, has shrunk to 39 per cent as of last week, according to Angus Reid’s polling.
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Carney’s Liberals, meanwhile, have surged to 47 per cent of the decided and leaning vote in B.C., up from a low of just 14 per cent at the start of the year.
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“(It’s) nothing I have ever seen before,” said Kurl in an email response to Postmedia News questions. “The speed and scope of it, nothing I even remember reading or studying in modern Canadian history.”
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And it has been somewhat at the expense of the NDP, which has seen its support fall in the polls to just 11 per cent of the decided or leaning vote in B.C., down from 26 per cent at the start of 2025.
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Poll aggregators such as 338Canada.com say these polls indicate that even previous NDP strongholds such as Burnaby-Central and New Westminster-Burnaby-Maillardville are threatened.