British Columbia general election, 1912

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The British Columbia general election of 1912 was the thirteenth general election for the Province of British Columbia, Canada. It was held to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. The election was called on February 27, 1912, and held on March 28, 1912. The new legislature met for the first time on January 16, 1913.

British Columbia Province of Canada

British Columbia is the westernmost province of Canada, located between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. With an estimated population of 5.016 million as of 2018, it is Canada's third-most populous province.

Canada Country in North America

Canada is a country in the northern part of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres, making it the world's second-largest country by total area. Canada's southern border with the United States is the world's longest bi-national land border. Its capital is Ottawa, and its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. As a whole, Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its land area being dominated by forest and tundra. Consequently, its population is highly urbanized, with over 80 percent of its inhabitants concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, many near the southern border. Canada's climate varies widely across its vast area, ranging from arctic weather in the north, to hot summers in the southern regions, with four distinct seasons.

Legislative Assembly of British Columbia single house of the Parliament of British Columbia

The Legislative Assembly of British Columbia is one of two components of the Parliament of British Columbia, while the other is Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, represented by the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia.

Contents

The governing Conservative Party increased its share of the popular vote to almost 60%, and swept all but 3 of the 42 seats in the legislature. Of the remaining three, one (Harold Ernest Forster in Columbia) was formally listed as an Independent but was a Conservative who had missed the filing date. He campaigned and sat in full support of the McBride government.

The British Columbia Conservative Party, formerly the British Columbia Progressive Conservative Party, is a provincial political party in British Columbia, Canada. From the early 1900s until the 1950s, the Conservatives were, along with the British Columbia Liberal Party, one of the two major parties in the province. Since the 1950s, the party has gradually declined in prominence, last winning a seat in a 1978 by-election. The Conservatives enjoyed a brief resurgence after Liberal MLA John van Dongen joined the party in 2012, and won nearly 5% of the vote in the 2013 provincial election. The party plays a minor role in provincial politics today.

Columbia was a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It made its first appearance on the hustings in the election of 1903. It lasted until the 1928 election, after which the revised riding was renamed Columbia River. This riding was later merged with the Revelstoke riding to become Columbia River-Revelstoke, the current riding for the western part of the area. The eastern part of the riding is now part of East Kootenay.

The Liberal Party's share of the vote fell from one-third to one-quarter, and it lost both of its seats in the legislature.

The remaining two seats were won by the Socialist Party and the Social Democratic Party in the coal-mining ridings of Nanaimo City and Newcastle.

Socialist Party of Canada political party of Canada, 1904–1925

The first Socialist Party of Canada (SPC) existed from 1904 to 1925 led by E. T. Kingsley. It published the Western Clarion newspaper.

The Social Democratic Party was a social democratic political party in Canada founded in 1911 by members of the right wing of the Socialist Party of Canada, many of whom had left the organisation in May 1907 to form the Social Democratic Party of British Columbia. These members were dissatisfied with what they saw as that party's rigid, doctrinaire approach. As opposed to the Socialist Party of Canada, the SDP allowed minority language groups ample room for self-determination, which led to a perception that the ethnic groups were more dominant than the overarching SDP. When the authorities cracked down on ethnic groups during the 1918 wave of repression, many of these individual ethnic chapters were shut down.

Nanaimo City was a provincial electoral district in the city of Nanaimo, British Columbia in Canada from 1890 to 1912. It was one of two Nanaimo ridings at the time, created out of the older Nanaimo riding, with intermediary ridings The Islands and Nanaimo and the Islands. The name Nanaimo was restored as a riding name in the 1996 election.

Results

PartyParty leader# of
candidates
SeatsPopular vote
1909Elected% Change#%% Change
  Conservative 1 Richard McBride 423839+2.6%50,42359.65%+7.32%
Socialist  1721-9,36611.08%-0.42%
 Independent Conservative7-1-1,1631.37%+1.22%
Social Democratic  1*1*6210.74%*
  Liberal Harlan Carey Brewster 192--100%21,44325.37%-7.84%
 Independent2---1,5131.79%-0.80%
Total884242-84,529100% 
Source: Elections BC

Notes:

* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

1 Since nine Conservatives were elected by acclamation, i.e., without any polling of votes, the total votes for the Conservative Party and the overall total as well as the popular vote are somewhat misleading. A potential 14,086 voters did not have the opportunity to exercise their franchise. Given a voter turnout of almost 50% in other ridings, the total number of votes could have been about 7,000 more.

Electoral district (Canada) federal or provincial electoral district in Canada

An electoral district in Canada, also known as a "constituency" or a "riding", is a geographical constituency upon which Canada's representative democracy is based. It is officially known in Canadian French as a circonscription, but frequently called a comté (county).

Results by riding

Results of British Columbia general election, 1912
GovernmentOpposition
MemberRiding
& party
Riding
& party
Member
     Henry Esson Young Atlin
Conservative
         Nanaimo City
Social Democrat
John Thomas Wilmot Place     
     John George Corry Wood Alberni
Liberal
         Newcastle
Socialist
Parker Williams     
     Michael Callanan Cariboo
Conservative
    
     John Anderson Fraser     
     Samuel Arthur Cawley Chilliwhack
Conservative
    
     Harold Ernest Forster [1] Columbia
Independent Conservative
    
     Michael Manson Comox
Conservative
    
     William Henry Hayward Cowichan
Conservative
    
     Thomas Donald Caven Cranbrook
Conservative
    
     Francis James Anderson MacKenzie Delta
Conservative
    
     William J. Manson Dewdney
Conservative
    
     Robert Henry Pooley Esquimalt
Conservative
    
     William Roderick Ross Fernie
Conservative
    
     Ernest Miller Grand Forks
Conservative
    
     John Robert Jackson Greenwood
Conservative
    
     Albert Edward McPhillips The Islands
Conservative
    
     James Pearson Shaw Kamloops
Conservative
    
     Neil Franklin MacKay Kaslo
Conservative
    
     Archibald McDonald Lillooet
Conservative
    
     William Ross MacLean Nelson City
Conservative
    
     Thomas Gifford New Westminster City
Conservative
    
     Price Ellison Okanagan
Conservative
    
     Thomas Taylor Revelstoke
Conservative
    
     Francis Lovett Carter-Cotton Richmond
Conservative
    
     Lorne Argyle Campbell Rossland City
Conservative
    
     David McEwen Eberts Saanich
Conservative
    
     Lytton Wilmot Shatford Similkameen
Conservative
    
     William Manson Skeena
Conservative
    
     William Hunter Slocan
Conservative
    
     William John Bowser Vancouver City
Conservative
    
     Alexander Henry Boswell MacGowan     
     George Albert McGuire     
     Charles Edward Tisdall     
     Henry Holgate Watson     
     Henry Frederick William Behnsen Victoria City
Conservative
    
     Frederick Davey     
     Richard McBride [2]     
     Henry Broughton Thomson     
     Alexander Lucas Yale
Conservative
    
     James Hargrave Schofield Ymir
Conservative
    
Source: Elections BC
  1. Identified as a Conservative but listed by the Chief Electoral Officer as an Independent. When he failed to obtain the official nomination, Forster ran as an Independent Conservative but in full support of the McBride government.
  2. Leader of the Conservative Party and incumbent premier

See also

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