1952 British Columbia general election

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.

1952 British Columbia general election

June 12, 1952
48 seats of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia 25 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   SC CCF Leader Rev. Ernest George Hansell[1] Harold Winch Party Social Credit Co-operative Commonwealth Leader since 1938 Leader's seat Vancouver East Last election 0 7 Seats won 19 18 Seat change 19 11 First count 209,049 236,562   Percentage 27.20% 30.78%   Swing 25.99pp 4.32pp Final count 203,932 231,756   Percentage 30.18% 34.3%   Third party Fourth party   PC Leader Byron Ingemar Johnson Herbert Anscomb Party Liberal Progressive Conservative Leader since 1947 1946 Leader's seat New Westminster (lost re-election) Oak Bay (lost re-election) Last election 39[2] 39[2] Seats won 6 4 Seat change n/a[2] n/a[2] First count 180,289 129,439   Percentage 23.46% 16.84%   Swing n/a[2] n/a[2] Final count 170,674 65,285   Percentage 25.26% 9.66%
Premier before election Byron Ingemar Johnson Coalition Premier after election W. A. C. Bennett[1] Social Credit

It was the first BC general election to use a preferential ballot, a short-lived phenomenon in the province. The presence of multi-member districts, such as Victoria City with 3 MLAs, in conjunction with the alternative voting system called for an innovation where the district's candidates were split into three "ballots", each with one candidate from each party.[3]

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 their federal cousins). After the coalition had collapsed, the Liberals felt threatened by the rising popularity of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. To lock out the CCF, the government adopted the alternative voting system instead of leaving the existing system in place or switching to STV. While they ran candidates separately under their own names, Liberal and Conservative party leaders believed 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 coalition's retention of power.

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. The combined Liberal and Conservative vote totals surpassed 50 percent in only eight seat contests, so even if the party voters had adhered to coalition discipline, the coalition did not have enough votes to be elected in most of the districts. They received only a comparative few votes through vote transfers from CCF and SC candidates, whose supporters aided each other where possible.[4]

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 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 decimated, 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.)

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-elect on July 15, 1952. This began what would be 21 years straight – and 36 of the next 39 years – of Social Credit rule in British Columbia.

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

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
				1949	Elected	% Change	First count	%	Change	Final count	%
	Social Credit	Ernest George Hansell	47	-	19	-	209,049	27.20%	+25.99%	203,932	30.18%
	Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Harold Winch	48	7	18	+157.1%	236,562	30.78%	-4.32%	231,756	34.3%
	Liberal	Byron Ingemar Johnson	48	39^1	6	n/a^1	180,289	23.46%	n/a^1	170,674	25.26%
	Progressive Conservative	Herbert Anscomb	48		4		129,439	16.84%		65,285	9.66%
	Labour	Tom Uphill	1	1	1	-	1,290	0.16%	-0.05%	1,758	0.26%
	Christian Democratic		8	*	0	*	7,176	0.93%	*	1,318	0.2%
	Labour Progressive		5	-	-	-	2,514	0.33%	+0.09%	931	0.14%
	Independents		5	1	-	-100%	1,312	0.17%	-0.57%	-	-
	Labour Representation Committee		1	*	0	*	654	0.09%	*	-	-
	Socialist		1	*	0	*	276	0.04%	*	-	-
Total			212	48	48	-	768,561	100%	-	675,654	100%
Source: Elections BC

Note:

* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

¹ In the previous election, the Liberal and Conservative parties ran candidates jointly as "Coalition" candidates, electing 39 MLAs. The Conservatives withdrew from the coalition in 1951 hastening the government's collapse.

Popular vote (first count) CCF   30.78% Social Credit   27.20% Liberal   23.46% PC   16.84% Labour   0.16% Others   1.56%

Popular vote (final count) CCF   34.30% Social Credit   30.18% Liberal   25.26% PC   9.66% Labour   0.26% Others   0.34%

Seats summary Social Credit   39.58% CCF   37.50% Liberal   12.50% PC   8.33% Labour   2.08%

Results by riding

Results of British Columbia general election, 1952
Government				Opposition
	Member	Riding & party		Riding & party		Member
	William Ralph Talbot Chetwynd	Cariboo BC Social Credit League			Alberni Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Stanley John Squire
	William Kenneth Kiernan	Chilliwack BC Social Credit League			Atlin Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Frank Calder
	Richard Orr Newton	Columbia BC Social Credit League			Burnaby Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Ernest Edward Winch
	Thomas Irwin	Delta BC Social Credit League			Comox Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	William Campbell Moore
	Lyle Wicks	Dewdney BC Social Credit League			Cowichan-Newcastle Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Robert Martin Strachan
	Llewllyn Leslie King	Fort George BC Social Credit League			Cranbrook Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Leo Thomas Nimsick
	Philip Arthur Gaglardi	Kamloops BC Social Credit League			Esquimalt Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Frank Mitchell
	Wesley Drewett Black	Nelson-Creston BC Social Credit League			Grand Forks-Greenwood Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Rupert Haggen
	Lorne Shantz	North Okanagan BC Social Credit League			Kaslo-Slocan Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Randolph Harding
	Cyril Morley Shelford	Omineca BC Social Credit League			Mackenzie Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Anthony John Gargrave
	Charles William Parker	Peace River BC Social Credit League			New Westminster Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Rae Eddie
	Robert Edward Sommers	Rossland-Trail BC Social Credit League			Prince Rupert Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	George Edwin Hills
	James Allan Reid	Salmon Arm BC Social Credit League			Revelstoke Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Vincent Segur
	Harry Denyer Francis	Similkameen BC Social Credit League			Saanich Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Frank Snowsell
	William Andrew Cecil Bennett	South Okanagan BC Social Credit League			Vancouver Centre Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	James Campbell Bury
	Eric Charles Fitzgerald Martin	Vancouver-Burrard BC Social Credit League				Laura Emma Marshall Jamieson
	Bert Price				Vancouver East Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Arthur James Turner
	Tilly Rolston	Vancouver-Point Grey BC Social Credit League				Harold Edward Winch
	Irvine Finlay Corbett	Yale BC Social Credit League			Fernie Labour	Thomas Aubert Uphill
					Lillooet Progressive Conservative	Ernest Crawford Carson
					Nanaimo and the Islands Progressive Conservative	Larry Giovando
					Vancouver-Point Grey Progressive Conservative	Albert Reginald MacDougall
						George Clark Miller
					Skeena Liberal	Edward Tourtellotte Kenney
					North Vancouver Liberal	Martin Elliott Sowden
					Oak Bay Liberal	Philip Archibald Gibbs
					Victoria City Liberal	Nancy Hodges
						Daniel John Proudfoot
						William Thomas Straith
Source: Elections BC

Footnotes

1. Hansell was an Alberta Member of Parliament and was appointed to lead the BC party during the election but did not contest a seat, himself. Following the election, W. A. C. Bennett was elected as the leader of the Social Credit party by the newly-elected caucus and became Premier-elect on July 15, 1952.
2. The Liberal and Conservative parties ran as a coalition in the 1949 election.
3. "1871-1986 Electoral History of BC", p. 231-2
4. "1871-1986 Electoral History of BC"

Further reading

• Argyle, Ray. Turning Points: The Campaigns That Changed Canada - 2011 and Before (2011) excerpt and text search ch 11

See also

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