Three Vancouver Island municipalities to hold byelections as councillors head to legislature

The 2024 BC provincial election is over, and some of the successful candidates will be abandoning their city council posts to head to the BC Legislature. 

The BC NDP won by a narrow margin with 47 seats to the BC Conservatives’ 44, with the BC Greens garnering just two seats. 

Several of the newly elected MLAs were previously municipal councillors in their community who were looking to practise governance at an elevated level, representing their communities in the Legislative Assembly. 

Of eight municipal councillors newly elected to the legislature, three call Vancouver Island home. 

In these communities, byelections will now need to be held so the council seat won’t sit empty until the next round of municipal elections in 2026. 

Esquimalt

In the Township of Esquimalt, Darlene Rotchford was elected as a councillor in 2022. 

She ran in the Esquimalt-Colwood electoral district for the BC NDP during the recent provincial election, replacing Mitzi Dean, who had previously held the position of MLA for the Esquimalt-Metchosin riding since 2017. 

Dean announced shortly before the election that she would not be running this time around due to personal reasons. 

Esquimalt will need to hold a byelection to replace Rotchford on council, but have not yet announced a timeframe for this to take place. 

Sooke

Just west of Esquimalt, Sooke will also need to hold a byelection after the BC NDP’s Dana Lajeunesse won in his electoral district. 

Lajeunesse won his current seat on council in a byelection held in 2019 and was re-elected in 2022. 

He won his seat in the Legislative Assembly by a narrow margin over the BC Conservatives’ Marina Sapozhnikov who has since been the focal point of some controversy due to racist remarks. 

Sooke will need to replace Lajeunesse, but a byelection date has not yet been announced. 

North Cowichan

Lastly, the BC NDP’s Debra Toporowski of the North Cowichan municipal council was successful in her bid for a seat in the legislature. 

Toporowski won her seat on the North Cowichan council in 2018 and again in 2022 before making the move to represent her community in provincial politics. 

She also has been a sitting council member for the Cowichan Tribes for five terms. 

A byelection will have to be held to fill her position with North Cowichan, but the decision on whether she will have to give up her seat with the Cowichan Tribes will be left up to the First Nation and Toporowski herself. 

Toporowski is replacing the BC Greens’ leader Sonia Furstenau in the Cowichan Valley electoral district. 

Furstenau announced that she would be making the switch to running in the Victoria-Beacon Hill electoral district before the election campaign started and Toporowski defeated the BC Greens’ replacement for her in the region, Cammy Lockwood. 

Similarly to Sooke and Esquimalt, a byelection date has not been set for North Cowichan.