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Post-Election Polling Report: British Columbia 2024 Provincial Election

By Matto Mildenberger and Gabriel De Roche · 2025

We conducted a post-mortem assessment of the role that climate change played in the October 2024 BC provincial election, using an original survey of BC voters (n=1099).

We find that issues related to the cost-of-living were top-of-mind for BC voters, and find no evidence that the issue of climate change, or the costs of climate policy, played a role in determining vote choice. Even if climate change was not top-of-mind, we find that, all else equal, the BC public prefers parties and politicians who take climate change seriously. This is true across supporters of all parties, as well as among non-voters.

Key findings

  • A strong majority across all parties—at least 7-in-10 British Columbians—want the BC government to make addressing climate change a very high, high, or medium priority.
  • The average BC voter, including those who voted Conservative, prefers a provincial government that maintains the carbon tax on large polluters.
  • We found no evidence that downplaying the seriousness of climate change paid a political dividend for the Conservatives.
  • Our results suggest that climate action can boost support for provincial political actors without triggering backlash.

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