Westminster was a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It appeared in the 1890 election only. In 1894 it was succeeded by Westminster-Chilliwhack, Westminster-Delta, Westminster-Dewdney, and Westminster-Richmond, which were in the 1898 election succeeded by ridings named similarly, but without the "Westminster".
Note that this provincial riding should not be confused with the federal Westminster District riding which appeared only in the 1917 election, and which was succeeded by the Fraser Valley riding.
In the early 1880s the Lower Fraser Valley south and east of the city of New Westminster was largely unpopulated, with voters there voting in one of the two New Westminster ridings (New Westminster or New Westminster City). With the opening of the Canadian Pacific Railway settlement of the lush Fraser Valley lands was rapid, and a new more rural riding - Westminster - was created spanning the entire lower Fraser from Richmond to Chilliwack. Increasing growth led to the riding's further subdivision for the 1894 election into four sub-ridings, Westminster-Chilliwhack, Westminster-Delta, Westminster-Dewdney and Westminster-Richmond. The successor ridings dropped the Westminster-prefix for the 1903 election.
The name Westminster in the riding's name derives not so much from these areas being dependent on the city of New Westminster, but because it and all its successor ridings are all in the New Westminster Land District (beyond Chilliwack is the Yale Land District).
Note: winners in each election are highlightedbold.
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ± | Expenditures | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Government | John Calvin Henderson | 349 | 12.18% | – | unknown | |
Independent | Arthur Herring | 81 | 2.83% | unknown | ||
Government | John A. Kirkland | 420 | 14.65% | – | unknown | |
Opposition | Thomas Edwin Kitchen | 503 | 17.55% | – | unknown | |
Independent | James Punch | 484 | 16.89% | unknown | ||
Government | John Robson 1 | 506 | 17.66% | – | unknown | |
Opposition | Marshall Sinclair | 62 | 2.16% | – | unknown | |
Independent | Colin Buchanan Sword | 461 | 16.08% | unknown | ||
Total valid votes | 2,866 | 100.00% | ||||
Total rejected ballots | ||||||
Turnout | % |
1 Incumbent Premier of BC
The Lower Mainland is a geographic and cultural region of the mainland coast of British Columbia that generally comprises the regional districts of Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. Home to approximately 3.05 million people as of the 2021 Canadian census, the Lower Mainland contains sixteen of the province's 30 most populous municipalities and approximately 60% of the province's total population.
The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for 1,375 kilometres (854 mi), into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of Vancouver. The river's annual discharge at its mouth is 112 cubic kilometres (27 cu mi) or 3,550 cubic metres per second (125,000 cu ft/s), and each year it discharges about 20 million tons of sediment into the ocean.
The Fraser Valley is a geographical region in southwestern British Columbia, Canada and northwestern Washington State. It starts just west of Hope in a narrow valley encompassing the Fraser River and ends at the Pacific Ocean stretching from the North Shore Mountains, opposite the city of Vancouver BC, to just south of Bellingham, Washington.
Greater Vancouver, also known as Metro Vancouver, is the metropolitan area with its major urban centre being the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The term "Greater Vancouver" describes an area that is roughly coterminous with the region governed by the Metro Vancouver Regional District (MVRD), though it predates the 1966 creation of the regional district. It is often used to include areas beyond the boundaries of the regional district but does not generally include wilderness and agricultural areas that are included within the MVRD.
New Westminster was a federal electoral district in the province of British Columbia, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1871 to 1979.
Yale was a federal electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1872 to 1892 and from 1917 to 1953.
This is page shows results of Canadian federal elections in the Fraser Valley region of British Columbia. As defined for this article, the Fraser Valley includes the southern suburbs of Vancouver. Areas outside the Fraser Valley, namely the Fraser Canyon and regions to its west, are also included within one of the ridings. The largest of these ridings is the Chilliwack-Hope riding. This riding also includes most of the Fraser Valley until it joins the Okanagan-Similkameen and extends westward until outside Abbotsford.
New Westminster was the name, or part of the name, of several Canadian federal and provincial electoral districts. All provincial and federal ridings in the area of the Lower Mainland were part of the original New Westminster ridings. "Offspring" ridings are indicated accordingly.
Westminster-Chilliwack was a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia from 1894 to 1900. It and its sister ridings Westminster-Delta, Westminster-Dewdney and Westminster-Richmond were successors to the old four-member Westminster riding, which appeared in 1890 only and was a subdivision of the older New Westminster provincial electoral riding. Westminster-Chilliwack was succeeded by the Chilliwhack riding in the election of 1903.
Westminster-Delta was a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia from 1894 to 1900. It and its sister ridings Westminster-Chilliwhack, Westminster-Dewdney and Westminster-Richmond were successors to the four-member Westminster riding, which appeared in 1890 only and was a subdivision of the older New Westminster riding. Westminster-Delta was succeeded by the Delta riding in the election of 1903.
Westminster-Dewdney was a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia from 1894 to 1900. It and its sister ridings Westminster-Delta, Westminster-Chilliwhack and Westminster-Richmond were successors to the old four-member Westminster riding, which appeared in 1890 only and was a subdivision of the older New Westminster riding. Westminster-Dewdney was succeeded by the Dewdney riding in the election of 1903. This area is currently part of the Maple Ridge-Mission riding, with its former eastern portions now in Chilliwack-Kent.
Westminster-Richmond was a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia from 1894 to 1900. It and its sister ridings Westminster-Delta, Westminster-Dewdney and Westminster-Chilliwhack were successors to the old four-member Westminster riding, which appeared in 1890 only and was a subdivision of the older New Westminster riding. Westminster-Richmond was succeeded by the Richmond riding in the election of 1903.
Dewdney was a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Its predecessor was the riding of Westminster-Dewdney, which was created for the 1894 election from a partition of the Westminster riding, which was a rural-area successor to the original New Westminster riding, which was one of the province's first twelve.
Chilliwhack was a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia from 1903. It was the successor riding to Westminster-Chilliwhack and itself was succeeded by Chilliwack after the 1912 election.
Chilliwack has been a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia since 1916. Incorporating slightly different boundaries, it was the successor riding to the Chilliwhack riding the name of which was based on the older spelling of the name.
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.
An electoral redistribution was undertaken in 2008 in British Columbia in a process 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.
An electoral redistribution in British Columbia was undertaken by the BC Electoral Boundaries Commission in 2021. On October 21, 2021, the Government of British Columbia appointed Justice Nitya Iyer, Linda Tynan and Chief Electoral Officer Anton Boegman to serve as the 2021 commissioners. Justice Iyer was appointed the chair.