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. 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 separate "ballots", each with no more than one candidate from each party, with the member in each being elected by separate use of IRV. The voting age was also lowered from 21 to 19 prior to this election.

Due to the preferential ballot and a large increase in SC support, 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 BC 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, and a period of 39 years overall in which the party would dominate the legislative assembly, interrupted only by an NDP government from 1972 to 1975. This would also be the last election to produce a minority government until the 2017 election.

Background The government until not long before the election had been a Liberal–Progressive Conservative coalition (the Conservatives had recently changed their name to match that of the federal party). After the coalition had collapsed, the Liberals felt threatened by the rising popularity of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. To attempt to lock out the CCF, the government adopted the instant-runoff voting election system instead of leaving the existing system in place or switching to the single transferable vote system that was being used in neighbouring Alberta. The instant-runoff voting election system is a single-winner election system that uses transferable votes. While the Liberal and Conservative parties ran candidates separately under their own names, the leaders of those two parties hoped that if Liberal voters picked the local Tory candidate as their second preference and vice versa, one of the candidates of the two parties would have enough votes to be elected in many districts, hopefully ensuring the retention of power by the former coalition partners.

Vote count results However, the Liberal and PC leaders had not reckoned on being so unpopular with the province's voters. The combined Liberal and PC vote total was 120,000 fewer votes than in the previous election, while the Social Credit party received almost 200,000 more votes than in 1949. In only eight seat contests did the combined Liberal and Conservative vote total surpass 50 per cent, so even if the party voters had adhered to coalition discipline, in most of the seat contests the coalition did not have enough votes to be elected. They received only a comparative few votes through vote transfers from CCF and SC candidates, whose supporters aided each other where possible."1871-1986 Electoral History of BC"

In districts where CCF candidates were eliminated, back-up preferences were marked overwhelmingly for the British Columbia Social Credit League (BCSCL). Combined with many second-preference votes transferred from eliminated Liberal and Conservative candidates, this gave the Social Credit party five seats in addition to the 14 seats where its candidates had a plurality or a majority in the first counts. In the end, the Social Credit party captured 19 seats. The CCF received 18 seats, helped in many cases by transfers from eliminated SC candidates. The coalition was almost wiped out, winning only 10 seats between both parties. Both Premier Byron "Boss" Johnson and Tory leader Herbert Anscomb lost their seats.

Not even the Socreds had expected to win the election. The party had no official leader. Alberta Social Credit Member of Parliament Ernest George Hansell had led the party during the election campaign without contesting a seat himself. The Socreds persuaded Tom Uphill, a Labour member of the Legislature (MLA), to support the party, and so the Socreds were able to form a minority government. (Otherwise, having to provide the Speaker meant that the SC seat total would have been reduced to only the same as the CCF's seat count.)

Aftermath The party's next task was to choose the province's new premier. In a vote of the newly elected caucus, W. A. C. Bennett, a former Conservative MLA who joined the Socreds after losing a bid for the Tory leadership, won a caucus vote and became premier-designate on July 15, 1952. This began what would be 20 years of uninterrupted Social Credit rule in British Columbia. The party held power for 36 of the following 39 years. It would also be the last British Columbia election to produce a minority government until the 2017 election.

In hopes of getting a stronger mandate, Bennett deliberately lost a confidence vote in 1953. This forced an election in June 1953 in which Social Credit won a majority of the seats.

Results

+Elections to the 23rd Legislative Assembly of British Columbia (1952)PartyLeaderCandidatesFirst-preference votesSeats Votes ± % ± 1949 1952 ±Harold Winch 48 236,562 8,722 30.78 4.32 7 11Ernest George Hansell 47 209,049 194,723 27.20 25.15 – 19Boss Johnson 48 180,289 120,045 23.46 21.053929Herbert Anscomb 47 129,439 16.84Tom Uphill 1 1,290 193 0.16 0.05 1 6 1,312 3,851 0.17 0.57 1 1 8 7,176 7,176 0.93 New 5 2,514 854 0.33 0.09   Labour Representation Committee 1 654 654 0.09 New 1 276 276 0.04 ReturnedTotal 212768,561 100.00 Rejected ballots 45,649 35,758 Actual voters who voted 543,456 65,457 68.53% 5.11 Registered voters 793,073 144,054

MLAs elected

Synopsis of results + Results by riding1952 British Columbia general election (all districts) Riding First-preference votes Final counts Winning partyName CCF Total CCF 1949 1952   Alberni 3,067 1,366 2,176 1,204 – – 196 8,009 4th 4,054 – 3,030 – – Ind CCF Atlin595 – 292 164 – – – 1,051Elected on 1st count CCF CCF Burnaby12,933 6,750 3,816 2,807 – – 662 26,968 3rd 13,416 7,780 4,919 – – CCF CCF Cariboo 689 2,684 1,029 775 – – – 5,177Elected on 1st count Coal SC Chilliwack 2,242 8,509 2,543 2,097 – – – 15,391Elected on 1st count Coal SC Columbia 365 841 649 360 – – – 2,215 3rd – 1,174 860 – – Coal SC Comox 5,369 2,987 3,532 1,868 – – – 13,756 3rd 7,098 – 5,210 – – Coal CCF Cowichan-Newcastle 4,636 1,886 2,711 1,463 – – – 10,696 3rd 5,697 – 4,064 – – Coal CCF Cranbrook2,688 2,328 1,111 675 – – – 6,802 3rd 3,210 3,044 – – – CCF CCF Delta 10,853 11,759 4,293 4,688 – – – 31,593 3rd 13,295 14,805 – – – Coal SC Dewdney 6,024 7,600 3,631 2,233 – – – 19,488 3rd 7,248 9,813 – – – Coal SC Esquimalt3,607 1,606 2,294 1,550 – – – 9,057 3rd 4,741 – 3,597 – – Coal CCF Fernie 612 713 1,117 – 1,290 – – 3,732 3rd – – 1,329 – 1,758 Lab Lab Fort George1,593 2,009 2,022 371 – – – 5,995 3rd – 2,760 2,468 – – Coal SC Grand Forks-Greenwood826 292 252 706 – – – 2,076 3rd 1,043 – – 922 – CCF CCF Kamloops 1,311 3,108 2,708 959 – – – 8,086 3rd – 4,002 3,366 – – Coal SC Kaslo-Slocan1,411 597 617 522 – – – 3,147 3rd 1,792 – 1,000 – – CCF CCF Lillooet 1,074 450 725 1,301 – 96 – 3,646 4th 1,416 – – 1,847 – Coal PC Mackenzie 4,230 1,795 3,752 1,285 – – – 11,062 3rd 5,373 – 4,669 – – Coal CCF Nanaimo and the Islands 3,715 951 2,263 3,346 – – 207 10,482 4th 4,581 – – 5,144 – Coal PC Nelson-Creston 2,473 2,975 2,572 774 – – – 8,794 3rd – 4,265 3,351 – – Coal SC New Westminster 4,262 3,616 4,317 2,163 – – – 14,358 3rd 6,475 – 5,768 – – Coal CCF North Okanagan 1,786 4,347 2,104 1,240 – – – 9,477 3rd – 5,447 3,063 – – Coal SC North Vancouver6,268 4,947 6,695 4,061 – 216 604 22,791 6th 8,980 – 10,292 – – Coal Lib Oak Bay 707 1,071 3,631 2,843 – – – 8,252 3rd – – 4,308 3,282 – Coal Lib Omineca 838 1,137 1,099 574 – – – 3,648 3rd – 1,607 1,437 – – Coal SC Peace River 1,571 2,178 1,425 278 – – – 5,452 3rd 1,865 2,942 – – – Coal SC Prince Rupert 2,292 1,104 2,001 687 – – – 6,084 3rd 2,903 – 2,754 – – Coal CCF Revelstoke942 598 636 555 – – – 2,731 3rd 1,320 – 1,015 – – Coal CCF Rossland-Trail 2,541 3,979 3,331 1,690 – – – 11,541 3rd – 5,917 4,803 – – Coal SCSaanich 5,862 2,947 4,964 3,407 – – – 17,181 3rd 7,867 – 7,599 – – Coal CCF Salmon Arm 1,236 1,462 669 896 – – – 4,263 3rd 1,617 1,979 – – – Coal SC Similkameen 3,433 3,344 2,545 1,401 – – – 10,723 3rd 4,668 4,712 – – – Coal SC Skeena 1,048 501 1,500 586 – – – 3,635 3rd 1,318 – 1,865 – – Coal Lib South Okanagan 2,654 6,082 1,763 1,371 – – – 11,870Elected on 1st count Coal SC Yale 659 1,024 1,067 338 – 60 – 3,148 4th – 1,390 1,311 – – Coal SC Vancouver-Burrard (A) 10,037 9,166 6,166 5,765 – 577 1,064 32,775 5th 12,578 13,222 – – – Coal SC Vancouver-Burrard (B)10,397 9,002 6,358 5,615 – – 1,046 32,418 4th 12,920 13,166 – – – Coal SC Vancouver Centre (A) 6,912 4,694 5,234 4,120 – – 1,321 22,281 5th 9,363 – 7,956 – – Coal CCF Vancouver Centre (B)7,350 4,497 5,394 3,951 – – 967 22,159 5th 9,893 – 8,496 – – Coal CCF Vancouver East (A)21,006 11,536 6,574 2,850 – – 2,304 44,270 4th 21,960 12,433 8,263 – – CCF CCF Vancouver East (B)23,051 11,202 5,286 3,045 – – 2,249 44,833Elected on 1st count CCF CCF Vancouver-Point Grey (A) 11,267 13,771 13,406 14,042 – – – 52,495 3rd – 20,645 – 22,549 – Coal PC Vancouver-Point Grey (B) 11,366 12,882 12,828 14,886 – – – 51,962 3rd – 18,603 – 24,089 – Coal PC Vancouver-Point Grey (C) 10,451 19,236 12,087 10,356 – – – 52,130 3rd – 25,749 18,078 – – Coal SC Victoria City (A) 6,008 4,518 8,805 4,362 – 137 – 23,830 4th 8,421 – 12,071 – – Coal Lib Victoria City (B) 6,329 4,365 7,842 4,608 – 226 – 23,370 4th 8,902 – 11,057 – – Coal Lib Victoria City (C) 5,975 4,637 8,457 4,601 – – – 23,670 3rd 8,511 – 11,762 – – Coal Lib

= Open seat = Candidate was in previous Legislature = Incumbent had switched allegiance = Previously incumbent in another riding = Not incumbent; was previously elected to the Legislature = Incumbency arose from by-election gain = Multiple candidates

Analysis

+ Party popularity ranked, numbers of districtsFirst preference Final count Parties 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 1st 2nd 3rd21 12 10 5 18 14 –14 11 17 5 19 5 –9 22 14 3 6 22 23 3 7 34 4 2 –1 – – – 1 – –

+ Party candidates in 2nd place (first preference) Party in 1st place Party in 2nd place TotalSocred CCF Liberal PC– 5 9 – 147 – 12 2 212 6 – 1 92 1 – – 3– – 1 – 1 Total11 12 22 3 48

+ 1st and 2nd place candidates (final count) by party Party in 1st place TotalParty in 2nd place Socred CCF Liberal PC || 19 || || 8 ||11 ||– || || 18 || 4 ||– ||13 ||1 || || 6 || 5 ||– ||– ||1 || || 4 || 2 ||2 ||– ||– || || 1 || ||– ||1 ||– || Total 48 11 10 25 2

See also List of British Columbia political parties History and usage of the Single Transferable Vote

Notes

References

Further reading