Political context
Non-party system
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.
Although Labour as a party had run candidates in previous election, this election saw the first victories by Labour candidates (in Nanaimo and Nanaimo City), and a "Farmer" candidate (in the second Nanaimo seat). There were five successful independents.
The Robson Government
The government of newspaperman John Robson received a mandate after assuming power the year before. Robson died in office in 1892, yielding to Theodore Davie.
John Robson was a Canadian journalist and politician, who served as the ninth Premier of the Province of British Columbia.
The Hon. Theodore Davie was a British Columbia lawyer, politician, and jurist. He practised law in Cassiar and Nanaimo before settling in Victoria and becoming a leading criminal lawyer. He was the brother of Alexander Edmund Batson Davie, who served as premier of British Columbia from 1887 to 1889. Theodore Davie was first elected to the provincial legislature in 1882. In 1889, he became Attorney-General under Premier John Robson, and succeeded Robson as premier in 1892.
Byelections not shown
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.
List of ridings
The original ridings were thirteen in number, and Cowichan was restored to a two-member seat while Westminster (formerly New Westminster, actually the rural areas of the New Westminster Land District rather than the City of New Westminster, which was and continued to be represented by New Westminster City) was partitioned in four; Vancouver City was increased to three members from two while Cariboo was decreased to two from three. The Victoria, Nanaimo, West Kootenay and Lillooet ridings were partitioned also, and the Alberni and Cowichan ridings were combined into Cowichan-Alberni, which was a two-member seat. In addition the Nanaimo-area riding of The Islands which had appeared for the first time in 1890 election was no longer on the hustings, although it would re-appear again following the major redistribution that preceded the 1903 election. 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).
The New Westminster Land District is one of 59 land districts of British Columbia, Canada, which are the underlying cadastral divisions of that province, created with rest of those on Mainland British Columbia via the Lands Act of the Colony of British Columbia in 1860. The British Columbia government's BC Names system, a subdivision of GeoBC, defines a land district as "a territorial division with legally defined boundaries for administrative purposes" All land titles and surveys use the Land District system as the primary point of reference, and entries in BC Names for placenames and geographical objects are so listed.
Cowichan-Alberni was a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It appeared in the 1894 general election only. It was formed by combining the Alberni riding and parts of the older Cowichan riding. Alberni riding and Cowichan riding were restored for the 1898 election.
The Islands was a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It first appeared on the hustings in the 1890 provincial election and lasted until it was integrated into the new riding Nanaimo and The Islands at the 1941 election.
These ridings were:
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.
Cassiar was a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It first appeared in the British Columbia general election of 1882.
Comox was a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It was one of the first twelve ridings representing that province upon its joining Confederation, and was a one-member constituency. The core of this once-vast riding, which at its inception stretched to the Yukon border, is now named Comox Valley.
Polling conditions
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.
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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 Cowichan Valley Regional District is a regional district in the Canadian province of British Columbia is on the southern part of Vancouver Island, bordered by the Nanaimo and Alberni-Clayoquot Regional Districts to the north and northwest, and by the Capital Regional District to the south and east. As of the 2011 Census, the Regional District had a population of 80,332. The regional district offices are in Duncan.
Cariboo was a federal electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1871 to 1892.
Cariboo District was a federal electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1871 to 1872.
This was the second election held after British Columbia became a province of Canada on July 20, 1871. 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.
This was the third election held after British Columbia became a province of Canada on July 20, 1871.
This was the third election held after British Columbia became a province of Canada on July 20, 1871.
This was the fourth election held after British Columbia became a province of Canada on July 20, 1871. The number of members was increased for this election from 25 to 27, and the number of ridings increased to 13.
This was the sixth election held after British Columbia became a province of Canada on July 20, 1871. 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 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 British Columbia electoral redistribution of 2008 was undertaken over a lengthy period that began in late 2005 and was completed with the passage of the Electoral Districts Act, 2008 on April 10, 2008. The redistribution modified most electoral boundaries in the province, and increased the number of MLAs from 79 to 85. The electoral boundaries created by the redistribution were first used in the 2009 provincial election.
The 1866 election was the first election to the united colony of British Columbia.
The British Columbia electoral redistribution of 2015 was a process undertaken by the BC Electoral Boundaries Commission starting in 2014 and formalized by the passing of Bill 42 - 2015 Electoral Districts Act during the 40th Parliament. The redistribution added two seats onto the previous total, raising the number of MLAs from 85 to 87. The electoral boundaries came into effect for the 2017 election.
