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 | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | |
|---|---|
| Municipal elections | |
| Referendums | |
See also: List of British Columbia by-elections | |
George Anthony "Boomer" Walkem was a British Columbian politician and jurist.
Alexander Edmund Batson Davie, QC, referred to as A. E. B. Davie, was the eighth premier of British Columbia. He served in office from 1887 until his death in 1889.
William Smithe was a British Columbia politician.
John Robson was a Canadian journalist and politician, who served as the ninth premier of British Columbia.
The following is an alphabetical list of articles related to the Canadian province of British Columbia.
The 1871 British Columbia general election was held from October to December 1871. Formerly a British colony, British Columbia became a province of Canada on July 20, 1871. An interim Cabinet was appointed by the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, and election writs for the first general election as a province of Canada were issued to choose 25 members of the first provincial legislature from 12 ridings. These ridings were:
The 1883 Ontario general election was the fifth general election held in the Province of Ontario, Canada, to elect the 88 Members of the 5th Legislative Assembly of Ontario ("MLAs"). Held on February 27, 1883, the fifth Ontario provincial election was the only one ever contested in the month of February.
The Lillooet electoral district was a riding in the Canadian province of British Columbia, centred on the town of the same name and with various boundaries. Originally with two members, the constituency was split into Lillooet West and Lillooet East in the 1894, 1898, and 1900 elections, with Lillooet West being recomprised as one riding in the 1903 election.
Cariboo was one of the twelve original electoral districts created when British Columbia became a Canadian province in 1871. Roughly corresponding to the old colonial electoral administrative district of the same name, it was a three-member riding until the 1894 election, when it was reduced through reapportionment and became a two-member riding until the 1916 election, after which it has been a single-member riding. It produced many notable Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs), including George Anthony Boomer Walkem, third and fifth holder of the office of Premier of British Columbia and who was one of the first representatives elected from the riding; John Robson, ninth Premier of British Columbia; and Robert Bonner, a powerful minister in the W.A.C. Bennett cabinet, and later CEO of MacMillan Bloedel and BC Hydro.
The 1875 British Columbia general election was held in 1875. Many of the politicians in the House had served with the Legislative Council or Assembly or the Executive Council, or had otherwise been stalwarts of the colonial era - some supporters of Confederation, others not. Some were ranchers or mining bosses from the Interior, others were colonial gentry from the Island and New Westminster, and others direct arrivals from Britain, Ireland or "Canada", which was still considered a different place not only in the minds of the politicians but in the language used in Hansard during this period.
The 1878 British Columbia general election was held in 1878.
The 1886 British Columbia general election was held in 1886. The number of members was increased for this election from 25 to 27, and the number of ridings increased to 13.
The 1890 British Columbia general election was held in 1890. The number of members was increased for this election from 27 in the previous election to 33, although the number of ridings was decreased to 18.
The 1894 British Columbia general election was held in 1894. The number of members remained at 33 with the number of ridings increased to 26 as a result of the partition of the Yale and Westminster ridings.
George Cowan was a Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada, for the riding of Cariboo. He was first elected in a byelection in 1877 at the encouragement of George Walkem, the former and, at the time, future Premier. Cowan defeated the incumbent A.E.B. Davie, also a future Premier, who sought to win a seat in the House via the Cariboo byelection but who unlike Cowan did not have the advantages of Walkem's influence and support in the Cariboo riding. Cowan was re-elected consistently until retiring before the 1890 election.
The Legislative Council of British Columbia was an advisory body created in 1867 to the governor of the "new" Colony of British Columbia, which had been created from the merger of the old Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia. The new colony, like its predecessors, did not have responsible government, and while its debates and resolutions carried considerable weight, executive power remained in the hands of the governor, who at the time of the council's founding was Frederick Seymour.
The 2nd Legislative Assembly of British Columbia sat from 1875 to 1878. The members were elected in the British Columbia general election held in September and October 1875. The government of George Anthony Walkem was defeated on a confidence motion on January 25, 1876, and Andrew Charles Elliott was asked to form a new government. On March 29, 1878, a government bill to redistribute the seats in the legislature was defeated and the assembly was dissolved on April 12, 1878.
The 3rd Legislative Assembly of British Columbia sat from 1878 to 1882. The members were elected in the British Columbia general election held in May 1878. George Anthony Walkem was asked to form a government. Robert Beaven succeeded Walkem as premier in June 1882.
The Legislative Council of British Columbia held its first election in 1866. BC was a colony formed by the union of the colony of Vancouver Island and the colony of British Columbia.
