The politics of British Columbia involve not only the governance of British Columbia, Canada, and the various political factions that have held or vied for legislative power, but also a number of experiments or attempts at political and electoral reform.
The Legislature plays a role in the election of governments, as the premier and Cabinet hold office by virtue of commanding the body's confidence. Per the tenants of responsible government, Cabinet ministers are almost always elected MLAs, and account to the Legislative Assembly.
The Official Opposition is formally termed His Majesty's Loyal Opposition to signify that, though they may be opposed to the premier and Cabinet of the day's policies, they remain loyal to Canada, which is personified and represented by the King.[1]
History of politics in British Columbia
The chamber of the provincial legislature in Victoria
From BC's start as a province, BC used a mixture of the first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system in single-member districts and multi-member districts where voters cast multiple votes (plurality block voting). This was in use until 1990 (except for a small break in the 1950s when instant-runoff voting for each seat was used). In 1990, single-member districts were instituted across the province.
Prior to 1903, there were no political parties in British Columbia, other than at the federal level. One exception to this was the Nationalist Party, BC's first labour party founded in 1894. It elected an MLA in the 1894 and 1898 provincial election–Robert Macpherson.[2]
Since party politics were introduced to British Columbia, there have been a number of political parties which have controlled the government for more than ten years, including the Conservative government of the early 20th century, the interwar Liberal government, the post-war Social Credit ("Socred") government of W.A.C. Bennett and, following a brief reign by the New Democratic (NDP) under David Barrett, another Social Credit government under his son, Bill Bennett, the NDP government of the 1990s under Mike Harcourt, and the BC Liberal Party Government in the 2000s under Gordon Campbell.
During the 1940s, the government was controlled by a coalition of the Liberals and Conservatives. Neither party had the electoral strength to form a majority, so a coalition was used as a means to prevent the B.C. Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) (the forerunner of the NDP) from taking power.
The coalition adopted instant runoff voting hoping to prevent a CCF breakthrough but due to change in voting patterns, the change did not stop the Social Credit party from capturing many seats and winning government in 1952.
From 1972 to 1975, an NDP government led by Dave Barrett held power but was defeated after a showdown with organized labour. Social Credit was returned to power with a new leader - the son of former premier Bill Bennett. Bill Bennett, recruited by the party's old guard, brought in a new style of politics. His government's austerity budget of 1983 spawned opposition in the form of Operation Solidarity. In 1986, Bill Bennett retired from politics. Under the leadership of Bill Vander Zalm, the Socred party was beset by unpopularity and numerous scandals.
The NDP defeated the Socred government and led the province for ten years. Mike Harcourt led the NDP for the first half of this NDP decade, but the party did not have stable leadership after that and had three leaders and premiers over the next five years.
The rejuvenated BC Liberal Party won the next four elections before losing the 2017 election to the NDP government under John Horgan. Again in 2020, the Horgan-led NDP government beat the BC Liberal party, winning a clear majority with 57 out of 81 seats.
After the Liberals' defeat in 2020, the BC Liberal party renamed itself to BC United. In western Canada (other than Alberta), politics typically have featured a two-way fight between the CCF or NDP on the left, and a party on the right. In BC since 2020, BC United is that party of the right. The BC Liberal Party is neutral federally and derives its membership from the centre to the centre right. Since its takeover by supporters of Premier Gordon Campbell following the ouster of Gordon Wilson (who led the party from effective oblivion to Official Opposition in the 1991 general election), many consider it to be effectively a rebirth of the defunct BC Social Credit Party.
Conservative–Liberal era (1903–1952)
Elections to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia (1903–1949) – seats won by party (An italicized number indicates a minority government.)
British Columbia adopted recall-election and initiative legislation in the 1990s. These measures applied following the 1991 referendum.[3]
Only one recall petition was ever successful: that compelling MLA Paul Reitsma to resign his seat in 1998– hours before he would have been removed from office.
Fixed election dates
British Columbia was the first province in Canada to institute fixed election dates. In 2001 four year terms were institutionalized although exceptions are allowed. Previously, British Columbia elections were like most parliamentary jurisdictions, which only require an election within a specified period of time (being five years in all jurisdictions of Canada). Later, elections were changed from a spring date to an autumn date.
By the 1950s, the Liberal-Conservative coalition had begun to fall apart. One of the last acts of the coalition government was to adopt the instant-runoff election system, which was implemented for the 1952 general election.
Under this system, single-member contests were used (even in multi-seat districts) and preferential ballots were used. Rather than marking just one vote for one candidate by marking an X on their ballot, an elector ranked their choices of candidates by placing numbers next to the names of the candidates on the ballot. (However the vote used to help elect just one candidate, at most.) If a candidate received a majority of votes in the first count, that candidate was elected. If not, the candidate with the fewest votes was dropped and the second choice marked on each ballot was used to transfer the vote to another of the remaining candidates. This procedure was repeated until a candidate received a majority of votes, or the majority of votes still in ;lacy
The coalition suffered a defeat due to receiving relatively few votes. The result was the election of enough members of the Social Credit party to form a Socred minority government, with the CCF forming the official opposition. The Liberals were reduced to four members in the Legislature. The Conservatives (who had changed their name to “Progressive Conservative” in tandem with their federal counterparts) elected only three.
The Socred minority government lasted only nine months. The Alternative Voting election system (IRV) was again employed for the ensuing general election. The result was a Socred majority. During this term of office, the Socreds abolished the alternative voting system and returned the province to the traditional election system, which used both single-member districts where first-past-the-post was used, and multi-member districts where the plurality block voting election system was used.[4]
This mixture of multiple-member districts using plurality block voting election system and single-member districts using the first-past-the-post election system was abolished before the 1991 election, bringing single-member districts and FPTP into use universally.
In 2004, a Citizens' Assembly recommended replacing the first-past-the-post system with the single transferable vote election system, to be implemented in 2009. A referendum was held on May 17, 2005, in conjunction with that year's general election to determine if voters approved of this change. Change received majority support (57% of the popular votes cast), but the government said it required passage by 60% of votes cast to make the proposal binding. A second requirement was a majority of votes in 60% of the districts and 77 of the 79 districts achieved this, far more than the 48 minimum. The close result provoked further interest in electoral reform, and the provincial government promised a second referendum on the issue. The second referendum was held in conjunction with the 2009 general election but in that vote change garnered just over 39% of voter support, much less than the required majority.
In 2017 election, the BC NDP campaigned on the promise to hold a referendum on switching to an electoral system of proportional representation. In 2018, a referendum was held with two questions on the ballot. The first question was a binary choice of maintaining the existing first-past-the-post electoral system or moving to a proportional representation electoral system. The second question asked citizens to rank three specific types of proportional representation: dual-member proportional representation, mixed-member proportional representation, and rural–urban proportional representation. If a majority of citizens preferred proportional representation over first-past-the-post, this second question would determine which specific type of proportional representation the province would adopt. In the end, the second question was moot as voters chose the first-past-the-post system (61.3%) over proportional representation (38.7%).[5] After the results of the referendum were released (and even during the referendum campaign), critics suggested that a major reason that proportional representation was defeated was the complexity of the second ballot question.[6] Although the general public was knowledgeable enough to understand the difference between first-past-the-post and proportional representation, the subtle and numerous differences between dual-member proportional representation, mixed-member proportional representation, and rural–urban proportional representation were less easy to understand, motivating voters to vote to retain the existing electoral system.[7]
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