Provincial election guide: Candidates running in Victoria-Beacon Hill

The Victoria-Beacon Hill electoral district comprises most of the city of Victoria, and its boundary ends at Bay Street and Haultain Street to the north.

Since the riding was established in 1991, it has always seen a BC NDP representative elected, except for between 2001 and 2005 when a Liberal candidate was elected. 

From 2005 to 2020, Carole James was the BC NDP MLA for the riding until she was replaced by Grace Lore as the region’s representative. Lore has won the last two elections in Victoria-Beacon Hill. 

In 2024, Lore won by around 4,000 votes, beating out runner-up and former BC Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau. 

Here are the candidates running to be the next MLA of the Victoria-Beacon Hill electoral District: 

Grace Lore – BC NDP (incumbent)

Lore is an anti-violence advocate, academic instructor and researcher whose focus in running with the BC NDP has been on improving people’s lives in her riding. 

She has been elected to the Legislative Assembly twice, served as parliamentary secretary for gender equity, minister of state for childcare and the minister of children and family development.

Lore’s priorities include building more homes in BC, protecting affordable rentals and hiring more healthcare workers.

In 2024, she received a colorectal cancer diagnosis shortly after being re-elected, but is now reportedly cancer-free. 

Find information on the BC NDP’s platform here. 

Rajinder S. Sahota – BC Green Party

Sahota was born in Victoria, raised in Esquimalt and formed his early political views while living in Saanich. 

He is of Panjabi-Sikh descent, whose family resisted British occupation and colonization in Northern India before immigrating to Canada. He says this family history helped influence his decision to run in this election with the BC Greens.

Because Sahota witnessed and experienced discrimination from a young age, he has become an advocate for anti-racism and anti-discrimination. 

He has earned commerce and law degrees from UVic, a masters in international law from the London School of Economics and began his legal career in corporate law, working with major law firms in both Toronto and New York City. 

After pursuing academia, he returned home to Victoria to build a legal career focused on serving individuals and communities, and has been doing this work for nearly two decades. 

For the last ten years, Sahota has led a law firm specializing in personal injury, human rights and class actions and he has served for over a decade on the board of Pacifica Housing Advisory Association. 

Sahota’s priorities include publicly funded and universally accessible healthcare, education and transit. He also supports ending public financial support for the fossil fuel industry, multinational corporations and wealthy individuals.

This election will be Sahota’s first as a candidate. 

Find information on the BC Greens’ platform here. 

Joachim Agou – Independent

Agou was running as a candidate for the Conservative Party of BC before being fired for controversial social media posts that came to light. 

Even though he was fired from the BC Conservatives, Agou announced he would still be running as an Independent. 

Several of his past social media posts circulated online which prompted calls from the BC NDP for his removal. 

Interim BC Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson then had him removed from the party on October 8th.

The controversy centred on three social media posts from 2024 and 2025 that were highlighted by BC NDP candidate Amna Shah on Thursday morning.

One of the posts, dated September 7th, 2025, showed a video of a vehicle driving into a group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Agou responded in French, writing, “Il aurait du faire une marche arrière aussi,” which translates to “He should have reversed too.”

This and his other two posts were deemed hateful and racist by opponents. 

Agou is running for office for the first time this election. 

As he is an Independent candidate, he has no official platform. 

Voting information

Advance voting will take place from October 16th to 21st, with voting places open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. local time. 

Final Voting Day is Saturday, October 24th, with polls open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Voters can confirm their electoral district and find voting locations through Elections BC.