The 2009 British Columbia general election was held on May 12, 2009, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The British Columbia Liberal Party (BC Liberals) formed the government of the province prior to this general election under the leadership of Premier Gordon Campbell. The British Columbia New Democratic Party (BC NDP) under the leadership of Carole James was the Official Opposition.
The election was the first contested on a new electoral map completed in 2008, with the total number of constituencies increased from 79 in the previous legislature to 85. Under amendments to the BC Constitution Act passed in 2001, BC elections are now held on fixed dates which are the second Tuesday in May every four years.
A second referendum on electoral reform was held in conjunction with the election.
The election did not produce a significant change in the province's political landscape. The BC Liberals, who had been in power since the 2001 provincial election, were returned to power, constituting the first time in 23 years a party had won three elections in a row in British Columbia. Polling at the start of the year had shown the Liberals on-track to be returned with an increased majority, but a late shift in voter intentions from the Green Party to the NDP would ultimately lead to a near-repeat of the previous election four years prior. As a result of the seat redistribution, both the Liberals and the New Democrats gained seats, and both parties increased their popular vote by less than one per cent over 2005. Each party lost two incumbent MLAs: the BC NDP's Jenn McGinn and Charlie Wyse, and the Liberals' John Nuraney and Wally Oppal were defeated. All other seat changes in the election resulted from the new seats or from retiring incumbents.
Voter turnout was 50.99% of eligible voters (1,651,567 registered voters).
2008 redistribution of ridings
An Act was passed in 2008 providing for an increase of seats from 79 to 85, upon the next election. The following changes were made:
Abolished ridings New ridingsRenaming of districts Abbotsford-Mount Lehman Abbotsford West Alberni-Qualicum Alberni-Pacific Rim Bulkley Valley-Stikine Stikine Burnaby-Willingdon Burnaby-Deer Lake Burquitlam Burnaby-Lougheed Cariboo South Cariboo-Chilcotin Chilliwack-Kent Chilliwack-Hope Chilliwack-Sumas Chilliwack East Kootenay Kootenay East Esquimalt-Metchosin Esquimalt-Royal Roads Kamloops Kamloops-South Thompson Malahat-Juan de Fuca Juan de Fuca Nanaimo-Parksville Parksville-Qualicum Okanagan-Vernon Vernon-Monashee Okanagan-Westside Westside-Kelowna Penticton-Okanagan Valley Penticton Prince George North Prince George-Mackenzie Prince George-Mount Robson Prince George-Valemount Prince George-Omineca Nechako Lakes Surrey-Panorama Ridge Surrey-Panorama Victoria-Hillside Victoria-Swan Lake West Vancouver-Garibaldi West Vancouver-Sea to SkyDrawn from other districts Surrey-FleetwoodFrom parts of Surrey-Green Timbers, Surrey-Newton and Surrey-Cloverdale.Division of districts Abbotsford-Clayburn Abbotsford-MissionAlso taking in part of Maple Ridge-Mission. Abbotsford South Cowichan-Ladysmith Cowichan ValleyAlso taking in part of Malahat-Juan de Fuca. Nanaimo-North CowichanAlso taking in part of Nanaimo. Vancouver-Burrard Vancouver-False CreekAlso taking in part of Vancouver-Fairview. Vancouver-West EndReorganization of districts Port Coquitlam-Burke Mountain Port Moody-Westwood Coquitlam-Burke Mountain Port Coquitlam Port Moody-Coquitlam West Kootenay-Boundary Yale-Lillooet Boundary-Similkameen Fraser-Nicola Kootenay West
Political parties
British Columbia Liberal Party
Leader: Gordon Campbell
The BC Liberal party dropped from 72 to 46 seats in the legislature after the 2005 provincial election. Having formed a majority government since 2001 the party promoted its own track record as the government. Much of the party's platform was revealed in the 2009 Budget which included a three-year fiscal plan including revenue expectations, tax measures, and spending priorities. The budget proposed cost savings from reduced budgets in half of the ministries, 76% less government advertising, public sector wage freezes, and less spending on government travel costs, contracted professional services, and discretionary spending. The budget plan proposed to increase spending by $4.8 billion over 3 years for healthcare, $300 million over three years for social services, and $800 million more annually for education, as well as some new funding for childcare, policing, victims services, and social housing. The BC Liberal platform, some of it already promised in the budget, advocates hospital improvements in Surrey, Victoria, Vernon, Fort St. John and Kelowna; travel and accommodation assistance to families who must travel long distances to be with their children when they are receiving care; new measures to help remote communities get new access to fresh fruit and vegetables; provide citizens electronic access to their health records; establishing voluntary five-year-old kindergarten classes; establishing a law school at Thompson Rivers University, a medical school at UBC Okanagan, and a Wood Design and Innovation Centre at UNBC; doubling the BC Training Tax Credit; exempting the first $20,000 of seniors' pension income from income tax; legislating a Residents Bill of Rights for seniors living in residential care facilities and a registry for residential care aides; installing cameras to monitor school yards and high-risk public areas; outlaw dumping of raw sewage into the Strait of Juan de Fuca and help build a new sewage treatment plan for Greater Victoria.
New Democratic Party of British Columbia
Leader: Carole James
Under Carole James' leadership the NDP won 33 seats in the 2005 election and two by-elections in 2008. Among other points, its platform involved repealing the carbon tax, instituting a cap and trade plan of greenhouse gas emissions, adopting California's tough vehicle tailpipe emission standards, expanding the capacity and efficiency of public hospitals, instituting health care wait time guarantees, a 1-year small business tax holiday, freezing post-secondary tuition fees, hire more Crown Prosecutors, restoring public oversight to BC Ferries, restricting raw log exports, increasing the minimum wage to $10/hr indexed to inflation, placing a moratorium on new private run-of-the-river power projects, reinstating the Buy BC program, creating a new Rural Economic Development Fund, and promoting farm gate sales of agricultural products (including meat).BC NDP election platform
Green Party of British Columbia
Leader: Jane Sterk
The Green Party ran a full slate of candidates, as it did in 2005 when it won over 9 percent of the vote but no seats in the legislature. Its new leader was Jane Sterk, a former Esquimalt councillor. It supported the BC-STV proposal in the referendum. The party released its platform in a book titled British Columbia's Green Book, 2009—2013. Amongst other points, it advocated balanced budgets, reducing taxes on industry and business while increasing taxes on pollution, creating a Green Venture Capital Fund to invest in green collar jobs, directing 1% from the PST to municipal governments, allowing municipalities to issue municipal bonds, creating a provincial police force, reducing tuition fees by 20%, increasing funding to post-secondary institutions, refunding full tuition fees to graduates who work and live in the province for five years after receiving their degree, banning use of cosmetic pesticides, expanding the Medical Service Plan (to cover chiropractic, physiotherapy, eye exams, massage therapy, routine physical exams, and counselling for addictions), creating a Guaranteed Livable Income by unifying all current income support programs, supporting harm reduction practices, regulating cannabis, halting river-based hydro projects pending a review of the environmental assessment process, re-establishing BC Ferries as a Crown corporation, halting the Gateway Program, using usage based insurance for ICBC rates, and creating a BC Legacy Fund from oil and gas royalties for municipal and rural community projects.British Columbia's Green Book, 2009—2013: A Better Plan for British Columbia
Minor parties British Columbia Conservative Party Leader: Wilf Hanni
The Conservatives nominated 24 candidates, up from seven candidates in 2005 when they won 0.55% of the vote. In spite of his low profile party leader Wilf Hanni participated in a leaders' "Forum" in May 2009.Campbell's Challenge from the Right: The BC Conservative Party , Bill Tieleman, The Tyee, April 7, 2009 Their platform advocated, among other points, competitive and performance-based healthcare delivery within a publicly funded system, opposing the Recognition and Reconciliation Bill with Aboriginal peoples, returning treaty responsibility to the federal government, repealing the carbon tax and opposing a carbon trading system, expanding resource development (including offshore drilling), reducing the PST by 1%, harmonizing the PST with the Federal GST, eliminating the Property Transfer Tax, rolling back salary increases of MLAs and senior government employees, permitting parents more choices in which schools to send their children to and funding the schools accordingly, repealing the Corren Agreement, reducing tuition fees for students who meet certain standards in post-secondary education, light rail transit in southern Vancouver Island and in Chilliwack, eliminating tolls on bridges (including a proposed toll on the Port Mann Bridge), work requirements on public projects for criminals serving time in jail, a new program to address small crime separately from more serious crimes, creation of a program called Communities That Care to strengthen family dynamics and reduce negative youth behaviors, publishing a Criminal Offenders Registry, creating a substantive appeal process beyond the BC Human Rights Tribunal, enact a 'Right to a Free Vote' legislation for MLAs to freely vote in the Legislature, hold votes for federal senators, and implement a preferential voting system for provincial elections. British Columbia Libertarian Party Leader: None
The Libertarian Party ran six candidates in this election, as it did in 2005. The party supported reducing government involvement in delivery of health care, education, and car insurance; reducing taxes as services are privatized; and reducing government regulation on guns and drugs. British Columbia Marijuana Party Leader: Marc Emery
The Marijuana Party ran one candidate in this election and endorsed the Green Party. In 2005 it ran 44 candidates, while in 2001 it ran a full slate.Pablo, Carlito (2009). B.C. Marijuana Party endorses Greens for provincial election The Georgia Straight. Accessed December 21, 2015.
BC Refederation Party Leader: Mike Summers