The B.C. Conservatives have picked up one more seat, and it came out of a city the NDP has held for nearly a decade.

Once the recount was done and the mail-in, phone and absentee ballots were added, Conservative David Xie came out 64 votes ahead of NDP incumbent Paul Choi in Burnaby South-Metrotown. On election night, Oct. 24, Choi led by 66.

The final tally was Xie 6,570, Choi 6,506.

“We had a bit of a nailbiter here,” Xie told CBC News. “I’m very grateful that I got past the post with the outstanding votes that came through.”

Xie made a name for himself in Burnaby leading protests against a BC Housing supportive housing project on Imperial Street and against delays to the second phase of the Burnaby Hospital redevelopment, according to Freshet News.

Freshet also reports the NDP had held every Burnaby seat since 2017.

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Now, three of the city’s five MLAs are Conservatives: Xie, Simon Chandler in Burnaby North and Joshua Domnich in Burnaby Centre.

Province-wide, the flip gives the Conservatives 64 seats to the NDP’s 27, with the Greens holding two. Nearly half of voters, 47.4 per cent, backed the Conservatives, while 37.6 per cent backed the NDP.

It’s a long way from what David Eby was counting on when he called a snap election in September after the Conservatives’ leadership shakeup.

Two ridings still aren’t settled. In Kelowna Centre, Conservative Kristina Loewen leads the NDP’s Loyal Wooldridge by 43 votes, and in Ladysmith-Oceanside, NDP incumbent Stephanie Higginson leads Conservative Kris McNichol by 50. Both are subject to automatic judicial recounts.