1924 British Columbia general election

The 1924 British Columbia general election was the sixteenth general election in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It was held to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. The election was called on May 10, 1924, and held on June 20, 1924. The new legislature met for the first time on November 3, 1924.

The Liberal Party was re-elected to its third term in government, falling just short of a majority in the legislature even though it won less than a third of the popular vote. Two Independent Liberals were also elected. Premier John Oliver lost his own seat in Victoria City, but remained Premier until 1927.

The Conservative Party formed the official opposition, while two new parties, the Provincial Party and the Canadian Labour Party won three seats each, and a total of 35% of the vote.

1923 redistribution of ridings An Act was passed in 1923, providing for an increase in the seats in the Assembly from 47 to 48 upon the next election. The following changes were made:

Abolished ridings New ridingsDrawn from other ridings Crestonfrom part of Nelson Mackenzie Salmon Arm Burnabyfrom part of New Westminster SkeenaMerger of districts Kaslo Slocan Kaslo-Slocan Cowichan Newcastle Cowichan-Newcastle Grand Forks Greenwood Grand Forks-Greenwood Rossland Trail Rossland-TrailRenaming of districts Richmond Richmond-Point Grey

Campaign The Provincial Party, which nominated candidates only in 1924, was formed by a group of British Columbia Conservative Party dissidents known as the "Committee of 100", led and funded by the wealthy General Alexander McRae and political elements from the United Farmers of British Columbia. McRae claimed that the Liberal government of John Oliver and the previous administrations of Conservative Premier William John Bowser, then the opposition leader, were corrupt. Many of his allegations were related to the funding of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway plan to reach Prince George in the Northern interior of the province, which was not achieved until many years later. He claimed that there were kickbacks, patronage and various wrongdoings. His allegations were never proven. The election was bitterly fought with sensational allegations against all three leaders. McRae was not elected. Both Bowser and Oliver lost their seats but Oliver continued to lead his Liberal Party as Premier of a minority government after the election.

In the single-member districts, there was only one two-way contest, and most were either two- or three-way battles:

+ Candidate contests in the ridingsCandidates nominated Ridings PartyLibConProvLabInd-LibIndSocInd-ConFarm-LabTotalsSingle-member districts2 1 1 1 23 26 24 25 24 1 2 1 1 784 10 10 10 10 5 2 1 2 405 1 1 1 1 1 1 5Multiple-member districtsVancouver (6 MLAs) 1 6 6 6 5 1 1 1 1 27Victoria (4 MLAs) 1 4 4 4 3 1 16Total 40 46 47 45 15 5 3 2 4 1 168

Aftermath All three major party leaders had lost their races. In McRae's case, he missed becoming MLA in Vancouver City only because his fellow candidate Andrew McCreight Creery obtained 63 more votes. In an August byelection, Oliver gained a seat in Nelson when Kenneth Campbell chose to stand aside. Bowser decided to retire from politics, and Robert Henry Pooley (Esquimalt) was selected as the new Conservative leader.

The Provincial and Labour members would support critical portions of the Liberal legislative programme in the following session of the Legislature.

Results

|style="text-align:left;" |John Oliver |46 ||25 ||23 ||2 ||108,323 ||25,844 ||31.34 ||6.55

|style="text-align:left;" |William Bowser |47 ||15 ||17 ||2 ||101,765 ||8,710 ||29.45 ||1.75

|style="text-align:left;" |Alexander Duncan McRae |45 ||– ||3 ||3 ||83,517 ||83,517 ||24.16 ||

| style="text-align:left;" |Canadian Labourcompared with 1920 results for its predecessor Federated Labour | |15 ||3 ||3 || ||39,044 ||6,814 ||11.30 ||2.20

|5 ||– ||2 ||2 ||3,549 ||116 ||1.03 ||0.06

|3 ||3 ||– ||3 ||2,520 ||34,216 ||0.73 ||9.64

|style="text-align:left"| People's Party | |– ||1 ||– ||1 ||colspan="4"|Did not campaign

|2 ||– ||– ||– ||4,364 ||8,022 ||1.26 ||2.24

|4 ||– ||– ||– ||2,046 ||444 ||0.59 ||0.14

|1 ||– ||– ||– ||478 ||478 ||0.14 || |- ! colspan="3" style="text-align:left;" | Total | 168 | 47 ! colspan="2"| 48 ! colspan="2"|345,608 ! colspan="2"| 100.00%

+ Seats and popular vote by party Party Seats Votes Change (pp) /Canadian Labour /GAUV

MLAs elected

Synopsis of results + Results by riding - 1924 British Columbia general election (single-member districts) Riding Winning party VotesName 1920Party Votes Share Margin#Margin% Lib Con Prov Total Alberni Ind I-Lib 828 42.48% 46 2.35% – 339 781 – 828 – – 1,949 Atlin Lib Lib 463 38.71% 83 6.94% 463 353 380 – – – – 1,196 Burnaby New CLP 1,567 31.22% 243 4.85% 1,324 974 1,155 – 1,567 – – 5,020 Cariboo Lib Prov 493 37.81% 79 6.06% 414 397 493 – – – – 1,304 Chilliwack Lib Lib 1,429 37.83% 148 3.91% 1,429 1,067 1,281 – – – – 3,777 Columbia Lib Lib 644 56.84% 350 30.89% 644 294 195 – – – – 1,133 Comox PP I-Lib 1,261 43.95% 446 15.54% – 815 793 – 1,261 – – 2,869 Cowichan-Newcastle New Con 1,246 31.26% 114 2.86% 738 1,246 870 1,132 – – – 3,986 Cranbrook Lib Con 1,326 55.53% 264 11.06% 1,062 1,326 – – – – – 2,388 Creston New Con 879 49.97% 396 22.51% 483 879 397 – – – – 1,759 Delta Lib Lib 1,677 46.13% 424 11.66% 1,677 1,253 633 – 72 – – 3,635 Dewdney Con Con 1,259 36.60% 13 0.38% 1,246 1,259 935 – – – – 3,440 Esquimalt Con Con 1,280 46.36% 655 23.72% 625 1,280 515 – – – 341 2,761 Fernie FLP CLP 1,002 40.18% 151 6.06% 641 851 – 1,002 – – – 2,494 Fort George Lib Lib 1,080 46.67% 52 2.24% 1,080 1,028 206 – – – – 2,314 Grand Forks-Greenwood New Con 750 43.53% 108 6.27% 642 750 331 – – – – 1,723 The Islands Lib Con 583 34.17% 2 0.11% 542 583 581 – – – – 1,706 Kamloops Lib Lib 1,212 41.38% 215 7.34% 1,212 997 720 – – – – 2,929 Kaslo-Slocan New Lib 799 39.11% 199 9.74% 799 384 600 260 – – – 2,043 Lillooet Con Lib 626 42.56% 104 7.07% 626 323 522 – – – – 1,471 Mackenzie New Con 742 41.45% 95 5.27% 647 742 401 – – – – 1,790 Nanaimo Lib Lib 1,612 46.35% 529 15.21% 1,612 642 141 – – – 1,083 3,478 Nelson Con Lib 902 43.14% 191 9.14% 902 711 – – – – 478 2,091 New Westminster Lib Lib 1,564 37.61% 254 6.10% 1,564 1,310 591 693 – – – 4,158 North Okanagan Lib Lib 1,362 33.20% 292 7.12% 1,362 907 1,070 – – – 764 4,103 North Vancouver Ind Lib 1,283 31.34% 120 2.93% 1,283 442 1,151 – 1,163 55 – 4,094 Omineca Lib Lib 592 44.08% 139 10.35% 592 298 453 – – – – 1,343 Prince Rupert Lib Lib 920 55.89% 255 15.49% 920 – 61 – – – 665 1,646 Revelstoke Lib Lib 1,099 59.05% 505 27.13% 1,099 594 168 – – – – 1,861 Richmond-Point Grey Con Prov 2,141 35.34% 78 1.29% 1,855 2,063 2,141 – – – – 6,059 Rossland-Trail New Con 938 48.88% 393 20.48% 545 938 436 – – – – 1,919Saanich Lib Con 1,433 47.43% 521 17.24% 912 1,433 676 – – – – 3,021 Salmon Arm New Con 920 36.83% 96 3.84% 754 920 824 – – – – 2,498 Similkameen Con Con 1,306 39.56% 82 2.48% 771 1,306 1,224 – – – – 3,301 Skeena New Lib 794 50.41% 259 16.44% 794 246 535 – – – – 1,575 South Okanagan Con Con 2,009 52.98% 691 18.22% 1,318 2,009 340 125 – – – 3,792 South Vancouver FLP CLP 1,971 38.74% 687 13.50% 1,141 1,284 692 1,971 – – – 5,088 Yale Con Lib 1,148 46.09% 383 15.38% 1,148 765 578 – – – – 2,491

= open seat = turnout is above provincial average = winning 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 byelection gain = other incumbents renominated = endorsed by Provincial Party = endorsed by Conservative Party = previously an MP in the House of Commons of Canada = multiple candidates

+ Results by riding - 1924 British Columbia general election (multiple-member districts) Party Vancouver City Victoria City Votes Share Change Votes Share Change 58,261 30.71% -8.26% 15,195 29.40% -7.55% 51,596 27.19% New 9,050 17.51% New 45,685 24.08% -5.88% 23,075 44.65% 11.86% Canadian Labour 29,654 15.63% 4.69% 2,640 5.11% 2.86% 3,281 1.73% -4.06% – – – 750 0.40% -7.58% 1,715 3.32% -5.00% 276 0.15% New – – – 225 0.12% New – – -3.79% Grand Army of United Veterans – – -2.69% – – – – – -2.06% – – – – – -1.63% – – – – – – – – -9.88% – – – – – - 4.57% – – – – – -1.44%Total 189,728 100.00% 51,675 100.00%Seats won Incumbents returned

See also List of British Columbia political parties

References

1924 British Columbia general election

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