The early calling of B.C.’s October 2020 provincial election was not unconstitutional, B.C.’s Court of Appeal ruled Nov. 7.
However, then-B.C. NDP Premier John Horgan broke that cycle on Sept. 21, 2020, when Lt.-Gov. Janet Austin agreed to dissolve the Legislative Assembly and schedule the 2020 vote. They asserted Horgan broke the fixed election date law by calling the snap election without testing the confidence of the legislature.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Geoffrey Gomery ruled in June 2022 that the B.C. Constitution Act was “unambiguous” because it gives the lieutenant governor the power, whenever he or she sees fit, to act on a premier’s advice to dissolve the legislature.