The B.C. Conservatives are seeking a commission of inquiry into alleged election irregularities in a riding they lost by a razor-thin margin last year, including claims of improper voting at a mental health and drug treatment facility, voting by non-residents and a case of double voting.
The NDP’s 22-vote win in Surrey-Guildford pushed the party over the line to give it a one-seat majority in the fall election, but Conservative Leader John Rustad told a news conference on Thursday that his party had evidence of 45 suspicious votes in the riding.
They include 21 mail-in ballots Rustad said were cast at the Argyll Lodge residential care home, with the Conservatives sharing what it said were statutory declarations by residents outlining concerns about the process.
“I was rushed into marking the ballot, I do not know who I have voted for,” says one of the declarations, which were redacted of names and signatures.
“I marked the ballot where they pointed it and I was led to believe that I had no choice but to mark the ballot otherwise I feared that I would be kicked out of the house.”
Two declarations said the people involved were not previously aware that the election was taking place, and had not requested their mail-in ballots.
“Many of the other residents at the lodge are not in their senses,” said one of the declarations gathered by Conservative investigators at the facility, which has 25 beds.
The claims of irregularities at Argyll Lodge are central to a complaint filed with Elections BC by Honveer Singh Randhawa, the Conservative candidate who lost to the NDP’s Garry Begg in Surrey-Guildford.
Elections BC said Thursday it was reviewing the complaint, filed last Friday.
Randhawa said Thursday that he planned to follow the complaint by petitioning the B.C. Supreme Court to invalidate the result in the riding.
”(Premier) David Eby’s path to a majority in the legislature runs through the very sketchy mail-in ballot operation conducted at Argyll Lodge,” Randhawa said in a news release, referring to the addiction recovery facility.
However, Rustad said the party was not taking part in the legal action.
In addition to the Argyll Lodge votes, Rustad said the party found evidence that 22 people who did not live in the riding had voted in the election there, although he did not elaborate on the allegations.
Another voter reported that they had voted twice, under slightly different names, Rustad said.
The 45 votes “fail even the most basic smell test in a democracy” he said in the news release.
The Conservative leader told the news conference that additional alleged irregularities included voting by non-citizens, and he wanted assurances for B.C. voters that “it’s only Canadian citizens who are voting.”
Rustad said he had heard of “hundreds” of potential cases of non-citizens voting in the election across the province.
“However, that’s something that we can’t prove, because obviously no one’s going to be coming forward and putting up their hand, saying, you know, ‘please have me eligible for a fine and put me in jail,’” Rustad said.
He said the Conservatives want a judge to head an inquiry into the 2024 election, a designation of Canadian citizenship on B.C.-issued identification, and a 90-day amnesty suspending Election Act penalties to encourage people to come forward with possible irregularities.
Eby and the NDP recommended that an all-party committee probe the election last November, B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma said Thursday.
“We think that the select standing committee, which would involve all parties, where they can bring their ideas and concerns forward, would be the right way to do that,” she said.
“We have an independent electoral process here, run by Elections BC, with processes for people to bring forward any concerns they have, and they would have a place for them to be properly investigation,” she added.
Sharma noted that Rustad had previously accepted the election results after judicial recounts in Surrey-Guilford and the Kelowna Centre riding.
A statement issued by the Conservative caucus says the manager of Argyll Lodge has the same name as a person who donated to the B.C. New Democrats in 2023.
Confirmation of Begg’s victory in Surrey-Guildford came nearly three weeks after election night on Oct. 19, when no majority could be declared.
The final results gave the NDP 47 seats in the 93-seat legislature, while the B.C. Conservatives won 44 seats, and the Greens two.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 9, 2025.
