1986 British Columbia general election

October 22, 1986

69 seats of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia
35 seats were needed for a majority
Turnout65.8%[1] Decrease 4.7 pp 1,366,193 voted. (The number of votes recorded exceeds the number of voters who voted due to the block voting system in use in BC's multi-member constituencies.)
  First party Second party Third party
 
SC
NDP
Leader Bill Vander Zalm Bob Skelly Art Lee
Party Social Credit New Democratic Liberal
Leader since 1986 1984 1984
Leader's seat Richmond Alberni Ran in Vancouver-Little Mountain (lost)
Last election 35 22 0
Seats won 47 22 0
Seat change Increase12 Steady0 Steady0
Popular vote 954,516 824,544 130,505
Percentage 49.32 42.60 6.74
Swing Decrease0.44 Decrease2.34 Increase4.05


Premier before election

Bill Vander Zalm
Social Credit

Premier after election

Bill Vander Zalm
Social Credit

The 1986 British Columbia general election was the 34th general election in the Province of British Columbia, Canada. It was held to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. The sitting Social Credit government was re-elected.

The election was called on September 24, 1986. The election was held on October 22, 1986, and the new legislature met for the first time on March 9, 1987.

The governing British Columbia Social Credit Party (Socreds) had seen a leadership change just months before the election, with Bill Bennett standing down in favour of Bill Vander Zalm. Promising a fresh start after the Bennett years, Vander Zalm led the Socreds to a fourth consecutive majority government, although with winning less than half of the popular vote. 12 new seats had been created in the legislature for this election. Social Credit coincidentally won 12 additional seats, while the social democratic New Democratic Party, led by Bob Skelly, won the same number it had in the previous election. No other parties won seats. In fact the two leading parties together - SC and NDP - took more than 90 percent of the votes.

There were 17 two-member constituencies in this election. Voters in these places were allowed two votes (Block Voting), and generally used them both on the same party, with the largest group (even if not a majority) taking both seats.

Only one district elected both a SC and a NDP MLA. This was Vancouver-Point Grey where two women, an NDP member and a Socred (Kim Campbell, later a Canadian prime minister), were elected.

All other districts elected either two Socreds (12 districts) or two NDP members (four districts), with no representation given to the minority vote in the district. That helped ensure the government's capture of the most seats.[lower-alpha 1]

It was the last election to be held with multi-member districts since BC moved to all single-member districts prior to the next election.

Opinion polls

Evolution of voting intentions at provincial level
Polling firm Last day
of survey
Source BCSC BCNDP BCLP PCBC Other ME Sample
Election 1986 October 22, 1986 49.32 42.60 6.74 0.73 0.61
United Communications Research October 1986 [2] 48 30 6 4 3.64 725
United Communications Research September 1986 [2] 50 29 6 3
Election 1983 May 5, 1983 49.76 44.94 2.69 1.16 1.45

Results

Summary of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia election results
Party Party leader Candidates Seats Valid votes received
1983 Dissol. 1986 Change # % % Change
Social Credit Bill Vander Zalm 69 35 - 47 Increase +12 954,516 49.32% -0.44%
New Democratic Bob Skelly 69 22 - 22 Steady 824,544 42.60% -2.34%
Liberal Art Lee 55 - - - - 130,505 6.74% +4.05%
Progressive Conservative Vacant[lower-alpha 2] 12 - - - - 14,074 0.73% -0.43%
Green 9 - - - - 4,660 0.24% 0.05%
  Independent 6 - - - - 2,470 0.13% -0.19%
  Libertas   1 - - - - 1,552 0.08% -
People's Front   8 - - - - 1,502 0.08% -
Communist   3 - - - - 722 0.03% -0.02%
Libertarian   3 - - - - 341 0.02% -
Western Canada Concept Doug Christie 1 - - - - 322 0.02% -0.84%
New Republic   1 - - - - 245 0.01% -
Total 237 57 57 69 Increase +12 1,935,453 100 -
Total voters voting ' ' ' ' ' 1,366,193 ' -
Source: Elections BC
Popular vote
Social Credit
49.32%
NDP
42.60%
Liberal
6.74%
Others
1.34%
Seats summary
Social Credit
68.12%
NDP
31.88%

See also

Notes and References

Notes

  1. Block voting also perhaps makes the popular vote – the number of votes cast – not truly reflective of the sentiment of the voters since some voters cast two votes, and others cast only one.
  2. Party leader Peter Pollen quit shortly before the election was called.

References

  1. "B.C. Voter Participation: 1983 to 2013" (PDF). Elections BC. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 28, 2019. Retrieved May 11, 2017.
  2. 1 2 "NDP edges closer to Socreds in polls". The Ottawa Citizen. October 11, 1986. p. A13.

Further reading

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