Politics of British Columbia
Encyclopedia
The Politics of British Columbia involves not only the governance of British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, and the various political factions that have held or vied for legislative power, but also a number of experiments or attempts at political and electoral reform.

History of politics in British Columbia

Prior to 1903, there were no political parties in British Columbia, other than at the federal level.

Sir Richard McBride
Richard McBride
Sir Richard McBride, KCMG was a British Columbian politician and is often considered the founder of the British Columbia Conservative Party. McBride was first elected to the provincial legislature in the 1898 election, and served in the cabinet of James Dunsmuir from 1900 to 1901...

 was the first Premier of British Columbia
Premier of British Columbia
The Premier of British Columbia is the first minister, head of government, and de facto chief executive for the Canadian province of British Columbia. Until the early 1970s the title Prime Minister of British Columbia was often used...

 to declare a party affiliation (Conservative Party
Conservative Party of Canada (historical)
The Conservative Party of Canada has gone by a variety of names over the years since Canadian Confederation. Initially known as the "Liberal-Conservative Party", it dropped "Liberal" from its name in 1873, although many of its candidates continued to use this name.As a result of World War I and the...

) and institute conventional party/caucus politics.

Since party politics were introduced to British Columbia, there have been a number of political parties which have controlled the government for more than ten years, including the Conservative
British Columbia Conservative Party
The British Columbia Conservative Party is a political party in British Columbia, Canada. First elected as the government in 1903, the party went into decline after 1933...

 government of the early 20th century, the interwar Liberal
British Columbia Liberal Party
The British Columbia Liberal Party is the governing political party in British Columbia, Canada. First elected for government in 1916, the party went into decline after 1952, with its rump caucus merging with the Social Credit Party for the 1975 election...

 government, the post-war Social Credit
British Columbia Social Credit Party
The British Columbia Social Credit Party, whose members are known as Socreds, was the governing political party of British Columbia, Canada, for more than 30 years between the 1952 provincial election and the 1991 election...

 ("Socred") government of W.A.C. Bennett
W.A.C. Bennett
William Andrew Cecil Bennett, PC, OC was the 25th Premier of the Canadian province of British Columbia. With just over 20 years in office, Bennett was and remains the longest-serving premier in British Columbia history. He was usually referred to as W.A.C...

 and, following a further brief reign by the New Democratic Party (NDP), another Social Credit government under his son, Bill Bennett
Bill Bennett
William Richards Bennett, PC, OBC , commonly known as Bill Bennett, was the 27th Premier of the Canadian province of British Columbia 1975–1986. He is a son of the former Premier, W. A. C. Bennett. He was a 3rd cousin, twice removed, of R.B...

, and lastly the NDP government of the 1990s.

During the 1940s, the government was controlled by a coalition
Coalition government
A coalition government is a cabinet of a parliamentary government in which several political parties cooperate. The usual reason given for this arrangement is that no party on its own can achieve a majority in the parliament...

 of the Liberals and Conservatives. Neither party had the electoral strength to form a majority, so a coalition was used as a means to prevent the B.C. Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation was a Canadian political party founded in 1932 in Calgary, Alberta, by a number of socialist, farm, co-operative and labour groups, and the League for Social Reconstruction...

 (CCF) (the forerunner of the NDP) from taking power.

From 1972 to 1975, an NDP government led by Dave Barrett
Dave Barrett
David Barrett, OC , commonly known as Dave Barrett, is a retired politician and social worker in British Columbia, Canada...

 held power but was defeated after a showdown with organized labour. Social Credit was returned to power with a new leader, and the son of the former Premier, Bill Bennett, who had been recruited by the party's old guard but brought in a new style of politics. In 1986, the younger Bennett retired from politics and his successor was Bill Vander Zalm
Bill Vander Zalm
Wilhelmus Nicholaas Theodore Marie "Bill" Vander Zalm is a politician and entrepreneur in British Columbia, Canada. He was the 28th Premier of British Columbia from 1986 to 1991.-Early life:...

. Under his leadership, he and his party became increasingly unpopular. In the face of mounting unpopularity and numerous scandals, the party was defeated by the NDP who went on to lead the province for the next ten years.

Currently, the province is governed by the British Columbia Liberal Party
British Columbia Liberal Party
The British Columbia Liberal Party is the governing political party in British Columbia, Canada. First elected for government in 1916, the party went into decline after 1952, with its rump caucus merging with the Social Credit Party for the 1975 election...

 under Christy Clark. In western Canada other than Alberta, typically politics have featured the CCF or NDP on the left and some other party on the right. The present incarnation of the BC Liberal Party fulfills this role in BC. The party is neutral federally and derives its membership from the centre to the centre right, and since its takeover by supporters of current Premier Gordon Campbell following the ouster of Gordon Wilson
Gordon Wilson (Canadian politician)
Gordon Wilson is a former provincial politician in British Columbia. He served as leader of the Liberal Party of BC from 1987–1993, leader and founder of the Progressive Democratic Alliance from 1993–1997, and in the provincial cabinet as Minister of Finance and Minister of Employment, Investment...

, who led the party from effective oblivion to Official Opposition in the 1991 general election
British Columbia general election, 1991
The British Columbia general election of 1991 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...

, many consider it to be effectively a rebirth of the defunct BC Social Credit Party.

Recall and initiative

British Columbia is the only province in Canada with recall election
Recall election
A recall election is a procedure by which voters can remove an elected official from office through a direct vote before his or her term has ended...

 and initiative legislation. Both were introduced following the 1991 referendum
British Columbia recall and initiative referendum, 1991
The British Columbia Recall and Initiative Referendum was a referendum held in British Columbia on October 17, 1991. It was concurrent with that year's general election. The referendum posed two questions. They were on whether elected officials should be able to be recalled and whether voters...

.

Only one recall petition was ever deemed to have had any success, compelling MLA Paul Reitsma
Paul Reitsma
Paul Reitsma is a former member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada, for the electoral district of Parksville-Qualicum.Reitsma served as the mayor of Port Alberni and Parksville, prior to his move to provincial politics....

 to resign his seat hours before he would have been removed from office.

Fixed election dates

British Columbia was the first province in Canada to institute fixed election dates. Previously, British Columbia elections were like most parliamentary jurisdictions, which only require an election within a specified period of time (being five years in all jurisdictions of Canada).

1950s

By the 1950s, the Liberal-Conservative coalition had begun to fall apart. However, in order to prevent the CCF from taking power, one of the last acts of the coalition government was to introduce an alternative voting system, which was implemented for the 1952 general election
British Columbia general election, 1952
The British Columbia general election, 1952 was the 23rd 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, 1952, and held on June 12, 1952. The new legislature met for the...

.

Rather than voting for one candidate by marking an “x” on their ballots, electors would rank their choices for the candidates running in their constituency by placing numbers next to the names of the candidates on the ballot. If a candidate received an absolute simple majority of votes, that candidate would be elected. If not, the candidate with the least number of votes was dropped and the second choices were allocated among the remaining candidates. This procedure would be repeated until a candidate received a majority of votes.

The expectation of using this voting method was that a Liberal voter's second choice would be a Conservative, and vice versa. The unexpected result was the election of enough candidates of the new Social Credit party to form a Socred minority government
Minority government
A minority government or a minority cabinet is a cabinet of a parliamentary system formed when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in the parliament but is sworn into government to break a Hung Parliament election result. It is also known as a...

, with the CCF forming the official opposition
Opposition (parliamentary)
Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. Note that this article uses the term government as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning the administration or the cabinet rather than the state...

. The Liberals were reduced to four members in the Legislature
Legislative Assembly of British Columbia
The Legislative Assembly of British Columbia is one of two components of the Parliament of British Columbia, the provincial parliament ....

. The Conservatives (who changed their name to “Progressive Conservative” in tandem with their federal counterparts
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....

) were reduced to three.

The Socred minority government lasted only nine months. The alternate voting system was again employed for the ensuing general election. The result was a Socred majority. During this term of office, the Socreds abolished the new voting system and returned the province to the traditional voting system.

First decade of 21st century

A Citizens' Assembly
Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform (British Columbia)
The Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform is a group created by the government of British Columbia, Canada to investigate changes to the provincial electoral system...

 in 2004 recommended replacing the First Past the Post system with a Single Transferable Vote
Single transferable vote
The single transferable vote is a voting system designed to achieve proportional representation through preferential voting. Under STV, an elector's vote is initially allocated to his or her most preferred candidate, and then, after candidates have been either elected or eliminated, any surplus or...

 system to be implemented in 2009, and a referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...

 was held on May 17, 2005 to determine if this change should go ahead. The proposal received majority support (57% of the popular vote), but the government had required 60% to make the proposal binding. A second requirement was a simple majority
Majority
A majority is a subset of a group consisting of more than half of its members. This can be compared to a plurality, which is a subset larger than any other subset; i.e. a plurality is not necessarily a majority as the largest subset may consist of less than half the group's population...

 in 60% of the current ridings and 77 of the 79 ridings achieved this, far more than the 48 minimum. The close result has provoked further interest in electoral reform
Electoral reform
Electoral reform is change in electoral systems to improve how public desires are expressed in election results. That can include reforms of:...

. As a result of this, the Provincial Government promised a second referendum on the issue to be held in November 2008, but this decision was reversed due to a variety of logistical problems with such timing. Instead, the second referendum was held in conjunction with the 2009 Provincial Election in May but it also failed, garnering just over 39% of voter support.

See also

  • Executive Council of British Columbia
    Executive Council of British Columbia
    The Executive Council of British Columbia is the cabinet of that Canadian province....

  • Legislative Assembly of British Columbia
    Legislative Assembly of British Columbia
    The Legislative Assembly of British Columbia is one of two components of the Parliament of British Columbia, the provincial parliament ....

  • List of political parties in British Columbia
  • British Columbia
    British Columbia
    British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

  • List of British Columbia general elections
  • List of premiers of British Columbia
  • Politics of Canada
    Politics of Canada
    The politics of Canada function within a framework of parliamentary democracy and a federal system of parliamentary government with strong democratic traditions. Canada is a constitutional monarchy, in which the Monarch is head of state...

  • Political culture of Canada
    Political culture of Canada
    Canadian political culture is in some ways part of a greater North American and European political culture, which emphasizes constitutional law, freedom of religion, personal liberty, and regional autonomy; these ideas stemming in various degrees from the British common law and French civil law...

  • Council of the Federation
    Council of the Federation
    The Council of the Federation is a council in Canada made up of the premiers of Canada's thirteen provinces and territories. Its main function is to provide a united front amongst the provincial and territorial governments when interacting with Canada's federal government...


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK