1952 British Columbia general election

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1952 British Columbia general election
Flag of British Columbia.svg
  1949 June 12, 1952 1953  

48 seats of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia
25 seats needed for a majority
 First partySecond party
 
SC
Harold Winch.jpg
Leader Ernest George Hansell Harold Winch
Party Social Credit Co-operative Commonwealth
Leader since19521938
Leader's seatDid not contest Vancouver East
Last election07
Seats won1918
Seat changeIncrease2.svg19Increase2.svg11
First count209,049236,562
  Percentage27.20%30.78%
  SwingIncrease2.svg25.99pp Decrease2.svg4.32pp
Final count203,932231,756
  Percentage30.18%34.3%

 Third partyFourth party
  Byron Johnson.jpg
PC
Leader Boss Johnson Herbert Anscomb
Party Liberal Progressive Conservative
Leader since19471946
Leader's seat New Westminster (lost re-election) Oak Bay (lost re-election)
Last election39 [1] 39 [1]
Seats won64
Seat changen/a [1] n/a [1]
First count180,289129,439
  Percentage23.46%16.84%
  Swingn/a [1] n/a [1]
Final count170,67465,285
  Percentage25.26%9.66%

Premier before election

Byron Ingemar Johnson
Coalition

Premier after election

W. A. C. Bennett [a]
Social Credit

The 1952 British Columbia general election was the 23rd general election in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It was held to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, alongside a plebiscite on daylight saving time and liquor. The election was called on April 10, 1952, and held on June 12, 1952. The new legislature met for the first time on February 3, 1953.

Contents

In 1951, the Legislative Assembly passed an act that allowed the use of preferential ballots in the next election. [2] The voting system used was instant-runoff voting (IRV). The presence of multi-member districts, such as Victoria City with 3 MLAs, was handled by an innovation where the district's candidates were split into separate "ballots", each with no more than one candidate from each party, with the member in each being elected by separate use of IRV. [3] The voting age was also lowered from 21 to 19 prior to this election. [4]

Due to the preferential ballot and a large increase in SC support, the election resulted in a surprise victory for the new Social Credit Party. Not even the Socreds had expected to win the election; the party had no official leader, and was nominally lead through the election by Ernest George Hansell, an Alberta MP who did not contest a BC seat himself. The newly elected caucus selected W. A. C. Bennett, a former Conservative MLA, to be their leader and premier-designate.

This began what would be 20 years of uninterrupted Social Credit rule in British Columbia. This would also be the last election to produce a minority government until the 2017 election.

Background

The government until not long before the election had been a LiberalProgressive 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. [5]

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

Elections to the 23rd Legislative Assembly of British Columbia (1952) [6]
PartyLeaderCandidatesFirst-preference votesSeats
Votes±% Fpv± 1949 1952±
Co-operative Commonwealth Harold Winch 48236,5628,722Decrease2.svg30.784.32Decrease2.svg7
18 / 48
11Increase2.svg
Social Credit League Ernest George Hansell 47209,049194,723Increase2.svg27.2025.15Increase2.svg
19 / 48
19Increase2.svg
Liberal Boss Johnson 48180,289120,045Decrease2.svg23.4621.05Decrease2.svg39
6 / 48
29Decrease2.svg
Progressive Conservative Herbert Anscomb 47129,43916.84
4 / 48
Labour Tom Uphill 11,290193Decrease2.svg0.160.05Decrease2.svg1
1 / 48
Steady2.svg
Independent 61,3123,851Decrease2.svg0.170.57Decrease2.svg1
0 / 48
1Decrease2.svg
Christian Democratic87,1767,176Increase2.svg0.93New
Labor-Progressive 52,514854Increase2.svg0.330.09Increase2.svg
  Labour Representation Committee 1654654Increase2.svg0.09New
Socialist 1276276Increase2.svg0.04Returned
Total212768,561100.00
Rejected ballots [7] 45,64935,758Increase2.svg
Actual voters who voted [7] 543,45665,457Increase2.svg68.53%5.11Decrease2.svg
Registered voters [7] 793,073144,054Increase2.svg

    MLAs elected


    Synopsis of results

    Results by riding 1952 British Columbia general election (all districts) [6]
    RidingFirst-preference votesFinal countsWinning party
    NameCCFSCLibPCLabIndOthTotal#CCFSCLibPCLab 1949 1952
     
    Alberni 3,0671,3662,1761,2041968,0094th4,0543,030IndCCF
    Atlin 5952921641,051Elected on 1st countCCFCCF
    Burnaby 12,9336,7503,8162,80766226,9683rd13,4167,7804,919CCFCCF
    Cariboo 6892,6841,0297755,177Elected on 1st countCoalSC
    Chilliwack 2,2428,5092,5432,09715,391Elected on 1st countCoalSC
    Columbia 3658416493602,2153rd1,174860CoalSC
    Comox 5,3692,9873,5321,86813,7563rd7,0985,210CoalCCF
    Cowichan-Newcastle 4,6361,8862,7111,46310,6963rd5,6974,064CoalCCF
    Cranbrook 2,6882,3281,1116756,8023rd3,2103,044CCFCCF
    Delta 10,85311,7594,2934,68831,5933rd13,29514,805CoalSC
    Dewdney 6,0247,6003,6312,23319,4883rd7,2489,813CoalSC
    Esquimalt 3,6071,606 [b] 2,2941,5509,0573rd4,7413,597CoalCCF
    Fernie 6127131,1171,2903,7323rd1,3291,758LabLab
    Fort George 1,5932,0092,0223715,9953rd2,7602,468CoalSC
    Grand Forks-Greenwood 8262922527062,0763rd1,043922CCFCCF
    Kamloops 1,3113,1082,7089598,0863rd4,0023,366CoalSC
    Kaslo-Slocan 1,4115976175223,1473rd1,7921,000CCFCCF
    Lillooet 1,0744507251,301963,6464th1,4161,847CoalPC
    Mackenzie 4,2301,7953,7521,28511,0623rd5,3734,669CoalCCF
    Nanaimo and the Islands 3,7159512,2633,34620710,4824th4,5815,144CoalPC
    Nelson-Creston 2,4732,9752,5727748,7943rd4,2653,351CoalSC
    New Westminster 4,2623,6164,3172,16314,3583rd6,4755,768CoalCCF
    North Okanagan 1,7864,3472,1041,2409,4773rd5,4473,063CoalSC
    North Vancouver 6,2684,9476,6954,06121660422,7916th8,98010,292CoalLib
    Oak Bay 7071,0713,6312,8438,2523rd4,3083,282CoalLib
    Omineca 8381,1371,0995743,6483rd1,6071,437CoalSC
    Peace River 1,5712,1781,4252785,4523rd1,8652,942CoalSC
    Prince Rupert 2,2921,1042,0016876,0843rd2,9032,754CoalCCF
    Revelstoke 9425986365552,7313rd1,3201,015CoalCCF
    Rossland-Trail 2,5413,9793,3311,69011,5413rd5,9174,803CoalSC
    Saanich 5,8622,9474,9643,40717,1813rd7,8677,599CoalCCF
    Salmon Arm 1,2361,4626698964,2633rd1,6171,979CoalSC
    Similkameen 3,4333,3442,5451,40110,7233rd4,6684,712CoalSC
    Skeena 1,0485011,5005863,6353rd1,3181,865CoalLib
    South Okanagan 2,6546,0821,7631,37111,870Elected on 1st countCoalSC
    Yale 6591,0241,067338603,1484th1,3901,311CoalSC
    Vancouver-Burrard (A)10,0379,1666,1665,7655771,06432,7755th12,57813,222CoalSC
    Vancouver-Burrard (B)10,3979,0026,3585,6151,04632,4184th12,92013,166CoalSC
    Vancouver Centre (A)6,9124,6945,2344,1201,32122,2815th9,3637,956CoalCCF
    Vancouver Centre (B)7,3504,4975,3943,95196722,1595th9,8938,496CoalCCF
    Vancouver East (A)21,00611,5366,5742,8502,30444,2704th21,96012,4338,263CCFCCF
    Vancouver East (B)23,05111,2025,2863,0452,24944,833Elected on 1st countCCFCCF
    Vancouver-Point Grey (A)11,26713,77113,40614,04252,4953rd20,64522,549CoalPC
    Vancouver-Point Grey (B)11,36612,88212,82814,88651,9623rd18,60324,089CoalPC
    Vancouver-Point Grey (C)10,45119,23612,08710,35652,1303rd25,74918,078CoalSC
    Victoria City (A)6,0084,5188,8054,36213723,8304th8,42112,071CoalLib
    Victoria City (B)6,3294,3657,8424,60822623,3704th8,90211,057CoalLib
    Victoria City (C)5,9754,6378,4574,60123,6703rd8,51111,762CoalLib
      = 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

    Party popularity ranked, numbers of districts [8]
    First preferenceFinal count
    Parties1st2nd3rd4th1st2nd3rd
      Co-operative Commonwealth 21121051814
      Social Credit 1411175195
      Liberal 9221436222
      Progressive Conservative 3373442
      Labour 11
    Party candidates in 2nd place (first preference) [8]
    Party in 1st placeParty in 2nd placeTotal
    SocredCCFLiberalPC
    Social Credit 5914
    Co-operative Commonwealth 712221
    Liberal 2619
    Progressive Conservative 213
    Labour 11
    Total111222348
    1st and 2nd place candidates (final count) by party [8]
    Party in 1st placeTotalParty in 2nd place
    SocredCCFLiberalPC
    Social Credit || 19 || || 8 ||11 ||– ||
    Co-operative Commonwealth || 18 || 4 ||– ||13 ||1 ||
    Liberal || 6 || 5 ||– ||– ||1 ||
    Progressive Conservative || 4 || 2 ||2 ||– ||– ||
    Labour || 1 || ||– ||1 ||– ||
    Total481110252

    See also

    Notes

    1. The nominal Socred leader, Ernest George Hansell, was an Alberta member of Parliament and was appointed to lead the British Columbia party during the election but did not contest a seat himself. Following the election, Bennett was elected as the leader of the Social Credit party by the newly-elected caucus and became Premier-elect on July 15, 1952.
    2. William Chant was previously a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

    References

    1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 The Liberal and Conservative parties ran as a coalition in the 1949 election.
    2. Provincial Elections Act Amendment Act, 1951 , S.B.C. 1951, c. 25
    3. Elections BC 1988, pp. 231–232.
    4. "Electoral History of B.C." Elections BC. May 9, 2008. Retrieved November 9, 2024.
    5. "1871-1986 Electoral History of BC"
    6. 1 2 Elections BC 1988, pp. 213–219, 221–240.
    7. 1 2 3 Elections BC 1988, p. 2.
    8. 1 2 3 Elections BC 1988, pp. 221–240.

    Further reading