By-Election coverage in the news today

It’s Election Day in two riding's in British Columbia, as the polls opened at 8am in Port Moody Coquitlam … and Chilliwack Hope.  Here’s a quick snapshot of stories that have been in the papers this morning:

BC byelections under way: Conservatives say they're in the mix with Liberals, NDP

If Conservative candidate John Martin wins, it will bring John Cummins's party one step closer to official status in the legislature and could tempt more dissatisfied Liberal MLAs to join John van Dongen on the other side of the floor with the Tories.

A Liberal win, meantime, would provide some much-needed good news for Premier Christy Clark, who has had to face a string of public-opinion polls that suggest her party and leadership are in real trouble.

Clark braces for by-election results

Premier Christy Clark plans an election-day visit to Port Moody today, but she won't be attending victory parties there or in Chilliwack tonight.

With the surging B.C. Conservative Party making a close three-way race in Chilliwack-Hope, Clark continued to stress keeping the "free-enterprise coalition" together. And she allowed that she is aware of merger discussions going on at the constituency level.   "I will certainly be leading this free-enterprise party," Clark said

B.C. byelections: Clark plays down Liberal hopes in midterm races

Clark said she will be working in her office in Vancouver tonight and will not make herself publicly available when results are confirmed. She said she plans to issue a written statement instead.

Clark’s comments came as senior Liberal supporters were projecting losses for the governing party in the Port Moody-Coquitlam and Chilliwack-Hope byelections.

“I don’t think they [the Liberals] should expect to win either byelection,” former B.C. Liberal cabinet minister Geoff Plant said in an interview.

Conservatives bear watching

… in short, the natural governing party in British Columbia is conservative in philosophy, if not always in name.

 It would be no surprise, historically speaking, to see the Liberals wiped out next May and the Conservatives rising in their place. The question might be whether the changeover can be managed smoothly, without an electoral loss, or whether the NDP can take advantage of the upheaval on the right.

 Predicting politics in B.C. is pointless. Expect the unexpected. It would pay, however, to keep history in mind as the results roll in tonight.

Clark has no plans for victory parties

There's going to be a break point in tonight's numbers. It's the difference between fulfilling most people's expectations by losing gracefully, and getting mortified by placing third.

Liberals are primed now to blame a second-place finish on vote-splitting by the B.C. Conservatives… if they come third, it means they're the vote-splitters, not the Conservatives.

The polls close at 8pm tonight … we’ll know soon after the direction VOTERS have decided to take, by who then decide to vote to send to the BC Legislature.