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British Columbia election results

© David Newman

In July, I'm going off to British Columbia, to the Pacific coast a place I have never been to. British Columbia is quite the interesting place, politically. People vote either left or right, many races being NDP versus Conservative at the federal level. Polls of BC for the federal level show constant change, as opposed to the relatively stable and predictable numbers that come out of Ontario or Alberta. As we started the month, there was a possibility of two elections occuring in May, as uncertainty in Ottawa could have brought the government down. British Columbia was a good place to look for the average political hack. After all, politics are way more interesting in BC. Shown by the next statement.

Not since the early eighties has a premier won two consecutive elections in British Columbia.

That is, however what happened this month when the Honourable Gordon Campbell, Prime Minister of British Columbia and leader of the BC Liberal Party won the general election in the province. Campbell came to power in 2001 winning all but two seats against the plagued New Democratic Party of Ujjal Dosanjh (now Minister of Health in the Federal Liberal Government) riding a wave of dissatisfaction and scandal of the NDP government. Campbell came in with a plan of neo-liberal economics of the style of Mike Harris.

This time the NDP came back with full force under the leadership of Carole James, a centrist in the relatively centrist NDP. While some were wanting a NDP government, rallying back from two single seats to forming a significant opposition is the best they could hope for.

The Liberal Party lost quite a few seats and quite the popular vote. They were elected in 46 seats with 46% of the popular vote. Four years ago, they had 77 of the 79 seats in the Legislative Assembly, and in terms of popular vote, the Liberals lost 11 points.

The NDP went up from 2 seats to 33, which may help slow down the sometimes unpopular policies of the Campbell government. The NDP got its support from Vancouver Island, Victoria and Vancouver, while the Interior is much more conservative and economically liberal, therefore voting with the BC Liberals.

The Green Party in BC is the strongest third party and the strongest Green party in Canada. It was shut out of the Assembly but managed to get 9% of the vote under leader Adrienne Carr, who many thought had a chance to become the first Green MLA in the country.

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