1952 British Columbia general election

Background

The government until not long before the election had been a Liberal–Progressive Conservative coalition (the Conservatives had recently changed their name to match that of the federal party). After the coalition had collapsed, the Liberals felt threatened by the rising popularity of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. To attempt to lock out the CCF, the government adopted the instant-runoff voting election system instead of leaving the existing system in place or switching to the single transferable vote system that was being used in neighbouring Alberta. The instant-runoff voting election system is a single-winner election system that uses transferable votes. While the Liberal and Conservative parties ran candidates separately under their own names, the leaders of those two parties hoped that if Liberal voters picked the local Tory candidate as their second preference and vice versa, one of the candidates of the two parties would have enough votes to be elected in many districts, hopefully ensuring the retention of power by the former coalition partners.

Vote count results

However, the Liberal and PC leaders had not reckoned on being so unpopular with the province's voters. The combined Liberal and PC vote total was 120,000 fewer votes than in the previous election, while the Social Credit party received almost 200,000 more votes than in 1949. In only eight seat contests did the combined Liberal and Conservative vote total surpass 50 percent, so even if the party voters had adhered to coalition discipline, in most of the seat contests the coalition did not have enough votes to be elected. They received only a comparative few votes through vote transfers from CCF and SC candidates, whose supporters aided each other where possible.

In districts where CCF candidates were eliminated, back-up preferences were marked overwhelmingly for the British Columbia Social Credit League (BCSCL). Combined with many second-preference votes transferred from eliminated Liberal and Conservative candidates, this gave the Social Credit party five seats in addition to the 14 seats where its candidates had a plurality in the first counts. In the end, the Social Credit party captured 19 seats. The CCF received 18 seats, helped in many cases by transfers from eliminated SC candidates. The coalition was almost wiped out, winning only 10 seats between both parties. Both Premier Byron "Boss" Johnson and Tory leader Herbert Anscomb lost their seats.

Not even the Socreds had expected to win the election. The party had no official leader. Alberta Social Credit Member of Parliament Ernest George Hansell had led the party during the election campaign without contesting a seat himself. The Socreds persuaded Tom Uphill, a Labour member of the Legislature (MLA), to support the party, and so the Socreds were able to form a minority government. (Otherwise, having to provide the Speaker meant that the SC seat total would have been reduced to only the same as the CCF's seat count.)

Aftermath

The party's next task was to choose the province's new premier. In a vote of the newly elected caucus, W. A. C. Bennett, a former Conservative MLA who joined the Socreds after losing a bid for the Tory leadership, won a caucus vote and became premier-designate on July 15, 1952. This began what would be 20 years of uninterrupted Social Credit rule in British Columbia. The party held power for 36 of the following 39 years. It would also be the last British Columbia election to produce a minority government until the 2017 election.

In hopes of getting a stronger mandate, Bennett deliberately lost a confidence vote in 1953. This forced an election in June 1953 in which Social Credit won a majority of the seats.

Results

MLAs elected

Synopsis of results

: = Open seat : = Candidate was in previous Legislature : = Incumbent had switched allegiance : = Previously incumbent in another riding : = Not incumbent; was previously elected to the Legislature : = Incumbency arose from by-election gain : = Multiple candidates

Analysis

Notes

References

References

1. {{Cite canlaw. (1951)
2. (2008-05-09). "Electoral History of B.C.".
3. "1871-1986 Electoral History of BC"