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25 seats in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia | |||
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The 1882 British Columbia general election was held in 1882.
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25 seats in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia | |||
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The 1882 British Columbia general election was held in 1882.
There were to be no political parties in the new province. The designations "Government" and "Opposition" and "Independent" (and variations on these) functioned in place of parties, but they were very loose and do not represent formal coalitions, more alignments of support during the campaign. "Government" meant in support of the current Premier; "Opposition" meant campaigning against him, and often enough the Opposition would win and immediately become the Government. The Elections British Columbia notes for this election describe the designations as "Government (GOV.) candidates supported the administration of G.A.B. Walkem. Those opposed ran as Reform (REF.), Opposition (OPP.), Independent Reform (IND.REF.), or Independent Opposition (IND.OPP.) candidates. Those who ran as straight Independents (IND.) were sometimes described as Government supporters (IND./GOV.).
The election was precipitated by the resignation of Premier George Anthony Boomer Walkem. The Premiership was taken over by Robert Beaven, who managed to retain the reins of government though not with as much support as had been enjoyed by Walkem. His government lasted only about seven months, after which William Smithe became Premier due to shifting loyalties in the House, seeking and winning approval in the next election in May 1886.
Any changes due to byelections are shown below the main table showing the theoretical composition of the House after the election. A final table showing the composition of the House at the dissolution of the Legislature at the end of this Parliament can be found below the byelections. The main table represents the immediate results of the election only, not changes in governing coalitions or eventual changes due to byelections.
The original ridings were increased by one (Cassiar) and Cowichan was reduced to a one-member seat, although the total of 25 members remained. There were no political parties were not acceptable in the House by convention, though some members were openly partisan at the federal level (usually Conservative, although both Liberal and Labour allegiance were on display by some candidates).
These ridings were:
Natives (First Nations) and Chinese were disallowed from voting, although naturalized Kanakas (Hawaiian colonists) and American and West Indian blacks and certain others participated. The requirement that knowledge of English be spoken for balloting was discussed but not applied.
As customary, byelections were held to confirm the appointment of various members to the Executive Council (cabinet).
Smithe's byelection acclamation confirmed him as Premier; Executive Council appointments were decided and made by the Lieutenant-Governor in this period, not by the Premier directly, but by the L-G in Consultation with the Premier (as still is the case, though only as a formal technicality, not in practice). The Premier's position itself was technically an appointment, as there were no political parties nor leaders, other than unofficial ones for each faction in the House to whom the Lieutenant-Governor would turn if their known caucus was sufficient to form a government.
Other byelections were held on the occasion of death, ill health, retirement and/or resignation for other reasons. These were won by:
Note: Government/Opposition status applies to candidate at time of election in 1882, not at time of dissolution in 1886.
| Composition of 4th British Columbia Parliament at Dissolution, 1886 | |||||||||||||
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| Government | Opposition | ||||||||||||
| Member | Riding & party | Riding & party | Member | ||||||||||
| Robert McLeese | Cariboo Government | Cariboo Independent Opposition | George Cowan | ||||||||||
| William Munro Dingwall | Comox Government | Charles Wilson | |||||||||||
| Hans Lars Helgesen | Esquimalt Government | Cassiar Opposition | John Grant | ||||||||||
| Robert Leslie Thomas Galbraith | Kootenay Government | Cowichan Opposition | William Smithe 1 | ||||||||||
| Ebenezer Brown | New Westminster City Government | Esquimalt Opposition | Charles Edward Pooley | ||||||||||
| Preston Bennett | Yale Government | Lillooet Opposition | Edward Allen | ||||||||||
| John Andrew Mara | Alexander Edmund Batson Davie | ||||||||||||
| Forbes George Vernon | New Westminster Opposition | James Orr | |||||||||||
| Robert Beaven | Victoria City Government | John Robson | |||||||||||
| New Westminster City Opposition | James Cunningham | ||||||||||||
| Victoria Opposition | Robert Franklin John | ||||||||||||
| George Archibald McTavish | |||||||||||||
| Victoria City Opposition | Theodore Davie | ||||||||||||
| Simeon Duck | |||||||||||||
| Montague William Tyrwhitt-Drake | |||||||||||||
| Yale Opposition | George Bohun Martin | ||||||||||||
| John Andrew Mara | |||||||||||||
| Charles Augustus Semlin | |||||||||||||
| 1Premier at Dissolution | |||||||||||||
| Note: Government/Opposition/Independent Designations in this table are not indicative of house alignment at dissolution. This is because those who had been Opposition at the time of the election in 1882 may (or may not) have been part of the outgoing government bench at the time of dissolution. | |||||||||||||
| Source: Elections BC | |||||||||||||
| General elections | |
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| Municipal elections | |
| Referendums | |
See also: List of British Columbia by-elections | |
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