What's even more striking by today's standards that in the 1993 election, BC's voting patterns were more in tandem with Alberta than Saskatchewan was. Reform got 36% in BC and 27% in Saskatchewan. By 2000, however, Saskatchewan ha more or less "caught up" with BC (48% and 49%, respectively). And after that, it's clear that Saskatchewan was moving right while Reform/Alliance dominance in BC was more a result of specific political conditions (Western alienation + a near-dead NDP).
In this election regionalism was barely a factor, and BC has really diverged from Alberta and Saskatchewan and massively rejected the Conservatives (and Manitoba almost voted identically to Ontario). Hard to believe BC embraced the creationist Stockwell Day 15 years ago!
Its only surprising for Vancouver/Victoria areas (which of course can be explained by your populism/dead NDP reasoning). In 1988 Christian Heritage bested Reform in several interior ridings, so its not surprising that someone like Day would play well there.
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