1991 British Columbia general election

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "1991 British Columbia general election" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

1991 British Columbia general election

← 1986 October 17, 1991 1996 →
← outgoing members elected members →
75 seats of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia 38 seats were needed for a majority
Turnout	64.03%[1] 1.77 pp
First party Second party Third party   BCL SC Leader Mike Harcourt Gordon Wilson Rita Johnston Party New Democratic Liberal Social Credit Leader since 1987 1987 1991 Leader's seat Vancouver-Mount Pleasant Powell River-Sunshine Coast Surrey-Newton (lost re-election) Last election 22 seats 0 seats 47 seats Seats won 51 17 7 Seat change 29 17 40 Popular vote 595,391 486,208 351,660 Percentage 40.71% 33.25 24.27 Swing 1.89 26.51 25.27
Premier before election Rita Johnston Social Credit Premier after election Mike Harcourt New Democratic

The 1991 British Columbia general election was the 35th provincial 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 September 19, 1991, and held on October 17, 1991. The incumbent Social Credit Party of British Columbia, which had been beset by scandals during Bill Vander Zalm's only term as premier, was defeated by the New Democratic Party of Mike Harcourt. Liberal Party leader Gordon Wilson surprised observers by leading his party to winning one-third of the votes cast, and forming the official opposition in the legislature after having held no seats at all since 1979. The new legislature met for the first time on March 17, 1992.

The election was held at the same time as a referendum on recall and initiative.^[2] It was also the first British Columbia general election with only single-member districts.^[3]