1909 British Columbia general election
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42 seats to the 12th Legislative Assembly of British Columbia 22 seats were needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1909 British Columbia general election was the twelfth 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 October 20, 1909, and held on November 25, 1909. The new legislature met for the first time on January 20, 1910.
The governing Conservative Party won its third consecutive term in government with over half of the popular vote and all but four of the 42 seats in the legislature, effectively a rout for the popular incumbent Premier, Sir Richard McBride.
Despite winning almost one-third of the popular vote, the Liberal Party won only two seats, the same number won by the Socialist Party with only 11.5% of the vote.
The first-past-the-post allocation of seats, combined with the multi-member constituencies in effect at the time, ensured that the Conservatives won with a lead of 34 seats, instead of only a lead of two seats that its proportion of the popular vote should have granted it.[1]
Results[]
Party | Party leader | # of candidates |
Seats | Popular vote | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1907 | Elected | % Change | # | % | % Change | ||||
Conservative 1 | Richard McBride | 42 | 26 | 38 | +46.2% | 53,074 | 52.33% | +3.63% | |
Liberal | James Alexander MacDonald | 36 | 13 | 2 | -84.6% | 33,675 | 33.21% | -3.94% | |
Socialist | 20 | 3 | 2 | -33.3% | 11,665 | 11.50% | +2.63% | ||
Independent | 3 | - | - | - | 2,625 | 2.59% | +2.36% | ||
Canadian Labour 2 | 1 | - | - | - | 165 | 0.16% | -3.79% | ||
Independent Conservative | 1 | * | - | * | 154 | 0.15% | * | ||
Independent Labour | 1 | - | - | - | 57 | 0.06% | -0.71% | ||
Total | 104 | 42 | 42 | - | 101,415 | 100% | |||
Sources: Elections BC |
Notes:
* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.
1 Two candidates are counted twice: R. McBride (Conservative), who contested and was elected in both Victoria City and Yale, and J. Oliver (Liberal) who contested but was defeated in both Delta and Victoria City.
2 Organized in 1906. Not the same as the CLP that contested the 1924 election.
Results by riding[]
Notes[]
- ^ Not the incumbent, but stood in this seat and won
See also[]
- List of British Columbia political parties
Further reading & references[]
- In the Sea of Sterile Mountains: The Chinese in British Columbia, Joseph Morton, J.J. Douglas, Vancouver (1974). Despite its title, a fairly thorough account of the politicians and electoral politics in early BC.
- Hopkins, J. Castell (1910). The Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs, 1909. Toronto: The Annual Review Publishing Company.
References[]
- ^ Grain Growers Guide, September 29, 1915, p. 7
- Elections in British Columbia
- 1909 elections in Canada
- 1909 in British Columbia
- November 1909 events