New Westminster District
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New Westminster District was a Canadian federal electoral district created when the province of British Columbia joined Confederation in 1871. Like other ridings established in that year, a byelection was called to fill the seat until the general election of 1872. The riding constituted all of the New Westminster Land District as well as the whole of the mainland Coast and adjoining islands, all the way to the Yukon border excepting the Coast and the Alaska Panhandle.
The 1871 names were all temporary pending ratification of the riding system by the provincial legislature. When they became mandated the riding names were simplified, New Westminster District's becoming simply Cariboo, and the same pattern was followed by the other temporary names, Victoria District, New Westminster District, and Yale District, which became the ridings of Victoria, Cariboo, and Yale for the general election the following year. riding of Vancouver Island became the riding of Vancouver.
Note the historical British Columbia provincial riding, Westminster, which appeared in the 1890 provincial election only.
[edit] Election results
Note: Winners of each election are in bold.
| Special byelection, 1871: New Westminster District 1 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |
| Liberal-Conservative | Hugh Nelson | 125 | 83.89% | |||
| Unknown | Scott 2 | 24 | 16.11% | |||
| Total valid votes | 149 | 100.00% | ||||
| Total rejected ballots | % | |||||
| Turnout | % | |||||
| 1 Byelections were held to fill the temporary seats created when British Columbia joined Confederation. General elections were not held until the following year. | ||||||
| 2 Scott's given name is not given in the electoral record. | ||||||
By the 1872 election the riding boundaries had been properly legislated and renamed. New Westminster District became the riding of New Westminster.
