It's always challenging filing a column on the eve of an election, since by the time most people read it they have either already voted or know the election's outcome.
So predictions can be a precarious proposition.
However, I will offer one prediction: this election will go down as one the most pivotal ones in B.C. history.
One of two scenarios will occur: either the B.C. Liberals will mount one of the most stunning political comebacks in Canadian history, or the NDP will pull off it doesn't do very often in this province - actually winning an election.
Throw in the very real prospect that a third party (the Greens) and more than one independent could be elected and the stage is set for an historically important vote. Both of the major parties are at a crossroads.
The NDP, according to reputable pollsters such as Ipsos Reid and Angus Reid, had a strong lead in public support heading into the campaign's final days. The prospect of an election win looks to be the best in more than 20 years, and if the party drops the ball on the goal line and loses, the ramifications could be huge.
If the NDP can't win under the current circumstances - facing an unpopular leader of an unpopular government, and leading in the polls for so long - the question of whether the party can ever win will come up, and I'm not sure what the answer will be for many people.
The B.C. Liberals face possible extinction if they can't pull off a miracle win, or at the very least win enough seats to form a credible Opposition. We've seen the so-called "free enterprise coalition" fall apart and disappear before.
This brings us to the two leaders. If the NDP loses, Dix will undoubtedly face many critics within his own ranks. The NDP is very good at taking down its leaders at the slightest sign of weakness and Dix may well face a revolt.
However, it may be Christy Clark who faces the sharpest knives. If she wins then those knives will of course be sheathed, at least for a while.
But if she loses, the focus will be on how many seats she delivered and whether they are enough to save her leadership. This election will also be studied by political scientists for other reasons, notably the contrasting styles the two parties took through the campaign.
The B.C. Liberals ran an angry, relentlessly negative campaign that routinely issued false and misleading statements about all kinds of things. Clark was called on this by the media - national columnists such as Gary Mason from the Globe and Mail and Brian Hutchinson from the National Post wrote scathing columns, and Global BC and other news outlets conducted "reality checks" that questioned the B.C.
Liberal claims.
Yet, for all the criticism, the B.C. Liberals actually went up in public support using this approach. Of course, an NDP victory may offer another source of analysis for political scientists.
The NDP ran a mostly positive campaign that stressed their platform, and only at the end did the party switch gears and hurl grenades at the B.C. Liberal track record. At no time, however, did the party engage in the kind of personal attacks that were routinely part of the other camp's strategy.
But the NDP lost ground during the campaign, according to those polls. A once insurmountable lead shrunk to single digits. Does that suggest people aren't inspired by the positive approach, and are lured by the negative?
We should know the answers to these questions about 9 p.m. on election night. Whatever the outcome, it's bound to have an impact far greater and farther reaching than the last two elections, and many more before them.
Keith Baldrey is chief political reporter for Global BC.
