2013 British Columbia general election

2013 British Columbia general election

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85 seats in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia 43 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout	55.32%[1] 4.33 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Christy Clark Adrian Dix Jane Sterk Party Liberal New Democratic Green Leader since February 26, 2011 April 17, 2011 October 21, 2007 Leader's seat Vancouver-Point Grey (lost re-election) Vancouver-Kingsway Ran in Victoria-Beacon Hill (lost) Last election 49 seats, 45.82% 35 seats, 42.15% 0 seats, 8.21% Seats before 45 36 0 Seats won 49 34 1 Seat change 4 2 1 Popular vote 795,946 715,999 146,607 Percentage 44.14% 39.71% 8.13% Swing 1.68pp 2.44pp 0.08pp
Popular vote by riding. As this is an FPTP election, seat totals are not determined by popular vote, but instead via results by each riding. Click the map for more details.
Premier before election Christy Clark Liberal Premier after election Christy Clark Liberal

The 2013 British Columbia general election took place on May 14, 2013, to elect the 85 members of the 40th Parliament of British Columbia to the Legislative Assembly in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The British Columbia Liberal Party (BC Liberals) formed the government during the 39th Parliament prior to this general election, initially under the leadership of Premier Gordon Campbell then after his resignation, Christy Clark. The British Columbia New Democratic Party (BC NDP) under the leadership of Carole James, and then Adrian Dix, formed the Official Opposition. The BC Green Party under the leadership of Jane Sterk and the BC Conservative Party under John Cummins were also included in polling, although neither party had representation at the end of the 39th Parliament.

The Liberal Party won its fourth straight majority; Clark was defeated in her riding, but she was re-elected to the legislature in a subsequent by-election in Westside-Kelowna on July 10, 2013,^[2] after Liberal MLA Ben Stewart stepped down on her behalf.^[3] The NDP remained the official opposition, losing two seats, and the Green Party won its first seat.

Despite their victory, the Liberals had been consistently several points behind the opposition New Democrats in every public opinion poll throughout the campaign.^[4] Even poll results released on the last day of the campaign suggested that the New Democrats had an eight to nine percentage point margin over the Liberals.^[5] Only one pollster, Forum Research, had released a poll which suggested that the Liberals were close enough that a victory was even possible for them, although even that poll had the New Democrats ahead by two percentage points.^[5] The Liberals' upset victory led to significant media debate about the quality of opinion polling in Canadian elections.