1952 British Columbia general election

1952 British Columbia general election

← 1949 June 12, 1952 1953 →

48 seats of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia
25 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party
 
CCF
Leader W. A. C. Bennett[a] Harold Winch
Party Social Credit Co-operative Commonwealth
Leader since 1952 1938
Leader's seat South Okanagan Vancouver East
Last election 0 7
Seats won 19 18
Seat change Increase19 Increase11
First count 209,049 236,562
  Percentage 27.20% 30.78%
  Swing Increase25.99pp Decrease4.32pp
Final count 203,932 231,756
  Percentage 30.18% 34.3%

  Third party Fourth party
 
PC
Leader Boss Johnson Herbert Anscomb
Party Liberal Progressive Conservative
Leader since 1947 1946
Leader's seat New Westminster (lost re-election) Oak Bay (lost re-election)
Last election 39[1] 39[1]
Seats won 6 4
Seat change n/a[1] n/a[1]
First count 180,289 129,439
  Percentage 23.46% 16.84%
  Swing n/a[1] n/a[1]
Final count 170,674 65,285
  Percentage 25.26% 9.66%

Premier before election

Byron Ingemar Johnson
Coalition

Premier after election

W. A. C. Bennett
Social Credit

The 1952 British Columbia general election was the 23rd general election in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It was held to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, alongside a plebiscite on daylight saving time and liquor. The election was called on April 10, 1952, and held on June 12, 1952. The new legislature met for the first time on February 3, 1953.

In 1951, the Legislative Assembly passed an act that allowed the use of preferential ballots in the next election.[2] The voting system used was instant-runoff voting (IRV). The presence of multi-member districts, such as Victoria City with 3 MLAs, was handled by an innovation where the district's candidates were split into three "ballots", each with no more than one candidate from each party, with the member in each being elected by IRV.[3]

Due to the preferential ballot, the election resulted in a surprise victory for the new Social Credit Party. Not even the Socreds had expected to win the election; the party had no official leader, and was nominally lead through the election by Ernest George Hansell, an Alberta MP who did not contest a seat himself. The newly elected caucus selected W. A. C. Bennett, a former Conservative MLA, to be their leader and premier-designate.

This began what would be 20 years of uninterrupted Social Credit rule in British Columbia. This would also be the last election to produce a minority government until the 2017 election.


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  1. ^ a b c d e f The Liberal and Conservative parties ran as a coalition in the 1949 election.
  2. ^ Provincial Elections Act Amendment Act, 1951, S.B.C. 1951, c. 25
  3. ^ Elections BC 1988, pp. 231–232.