British Columbia general election, 1953

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The British Columbia general election of 1953 was the 24th general election in the Province of British Columbia, Canada. It was held to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. The election was called on April 10, 1953, and held on June 9, 1953. The new legislature met for the first time on September 15, 1953.

This was the second and last election to use the alternative voting system. Rather than marking the ballot with an X, numbers were to be placed opposite the names in order of choice. If, after the first count, no candidate received an absolute simple majority, the candidate with the least number of votes was dropped, and the second choices distributed among the remaining candidates. This process continued until a candidate emerged with the requisite majority vote. Some voters only indicated a first choice (plumping), and others did not utilize the full range available. Consequently as the counts progressed, some ballots would be exhausted and total valid votes would decline, thereby reducing the absolute majority required to be elected. In multi-member ridings, there were as many ballots as members to be elected, distinguished by colour and letters.

The minority government formed in 1952 by the conservative Social Credit of Premier W.A.C. Bennett lasted only nine months before new elections were called. Social Credit was re-elected with a majority in the legislature to a second term in government with almost 38% of the popular vote.

The social democratic Co-operative Commonwealth Federation formed the official opposition with the only significant opposition caucus (14 seats).

The British Columbia Liberal Party lost two of its six seats despite and maintained its 20% share of the popular vote.

The Progressive Conservative Party lost three of its four seat in the legislature, as its share of the popular vote fell from almost 17% to under 6%.

One seat was won by a Labour candidate.

[edit] Results

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
Party		Party leader	# of candidates	1952	Elected	% Change	First count	%	Change	Final count	%
	Social Credit	W.A.C. Bennett	48	19	28	+47.4%	274,771	37.75%	+10.55%	300,372	45.54%
	Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Robert Martin Strachan	47	18	14	-22.2%	224,513	30.85%	+0.07%	194,414	29.48%
	Liberal	Arthur Laing	48	6	4	-33.3%	171,671	23.59%	+0.13%	154,090	23.36%
	Progressive Conservative	Deane Finlayson	39	4	1	-75.0%	40,780	5.60%	-11.24%	7,326	1.11%
	Labour	Tom Uphill	1	1	1	-	1,601	0.22%	+0.06%	1,793	0.27%
	Labour Progressive		25	-	-	-	7,496	1.03%	+0.70%	816	0.12%
	Christian Democratic		14	-	-	-	5,036	0.69%	-0.24%	752	0.12%
	Independents		6	-	-	-	1,951	0.27%	0.10%	-	-
	People's		1	*	-	*	20	x	*	-	-
Total			229	48	48	-	727,839	100%	-	659,563	100%
Source: Elections BC

Notes:

* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

x - less than 0.005% of the popular vote.

[edit] Results by riding

Results of British Columbia general election, 1953
Government			Opposition
	Member	Riding & party	Riding & party		Member
	William Ralph Talbot Chetwynd	Cariboo Social Credit		Alberni Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Stanley John Squire
	William Kenneth Kiernan	Chilliwack Social Credit		Atlin Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Frank Calder
	Richard Orr Newton	Columbia Social Credit		Burnaby Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Ernest Edward Winch
	Thomas James Irwin	Delta Social Credit		Comox Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	William Campbell Moore
	Lyle Wicks	Dewdney Social Credit		Cowichan-Newcastle Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Robert Martin Strachan²
	Llewllyn Leslie King	Fort George Social Credit		Cranbrook Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Leo Thomas Nimsick
	Philip Arthur Gaglardi	Kamloops Social Credit		Grand Forks-Greenwood Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Rupert Williams Haggen
	Herbert Joseph Bruch	Esquimalt Social Credit		Kaslo-Slocan Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Randolph Harding
	Wesley Drewett Black	Nelson-Creston Social Credit		Mackenzie Social Credit	Anthony John Gargrave
	Lorne Hugh Shantz	North Okanagan Social Credit		New Westminster Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	John McRae (Rae) Eddie
	George Henry Tomlinson Jr.	North Vancouver Social Credit		New Westminster Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	John McRae (Rae) Eddie
	Cyril Morley Shelford	Omineca Social Credit		Revelstoke Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Vincent Segur
	Charles William Parker	Peace River Social Credit		Skeena Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Frank Howard
	Robert Edward Sommers	Rossland-Trail Social Credit		Vancouver East Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Arthur James Turner
	Saanich Social Credit	John Douglas Tidball Tisdalle		Vancouver East Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Arnold Alexander Webster
	James Allan Reid	Salmon Arm Social Credit		Fernie Labour (Party)	Thomas Aubert Uphill
	Francis Xavier Richter	Similkameen Social Credit		Lillooet Liberal	James Gordon Gibson
	William Andrew Cecil Bennett¹	South Okanagan Social Credit		Lillooet Liberal	Philip Archibald Gibbs
	Eric Charles Fitzgerald Martin	Vancouver-Burrard Social Credit		Prince Rupert Liberal	Arthur Bruce Brown
	Bert Price	Vancouver-Burrard Social Credit		Vancouver-Point Grey Liberal	Arthur Laing
	Alexander Small Matthew	Vancouver Centre Social Credit
	George Churchill Moxham	Vancouver Centre Social Credit
	Thomas Audley Bate	Vancouver-Point Grey Social Credit
	Robert William Bonner	Vancouver-Point Grey Social Credit
	Lydia Augusta Arsens	Victoria City Social Credit
	William Neelands Chant
	Walter Percival Wright
	Irvine Finlay Corbett	Yale Social Credit
	¹ Premier-Elect	² Leader of the Opposition
Source: Elections BC