1996 British Columbia general election

British Columbia general election, 1996

May 28, 1996
75 seats of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia 38 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party   150x150px Leader Glen Clark Gordon Campbell Party New Democratic Liberal Leader since 1996 1993 Leader's seat Vancouver Kingsway Vancouver-Point Grey Last election 51 seats, 40.71% 17 seats, 33.25% Seats won 39 33 Seat change -12 +16 Popular vote 624,395 661,929 Percentage 39.45 41.82 Swing -1.26 +8.58   Third party Fourth party   Leader Jack Weisgerber Gordon Wilson Party Reform Progressive Democrat Leader since 1995 1993 Leader's seat Peace River South Powell River-Sunshine Coast Last election 0 seats, 0.18% pre-creation Seats won 2 1 Seat change +2 +1 Popular vote 146,734 90,797 Percentage 9.27 5.74 Swing +9.09 +5.74
Premier before election Glen Clark New Democratic Premier-designate Glen Clark New Democratic

The British Columbia general election of 1996 was the thirty sixth provincial election in the Province of British Columbia, Canada. It was held to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. The election was called on April 30, 1996, and held on May 28, 1996. Voter turnout was 59.1 per cent of all eligible voters.

New Democratic Party leader and provincial premier Mike Harcourt had resigned as the result of a fundraising scandal involving one of the members of his caucus. Glen Clark was chosen by the party to replace Harcourt. Clark led the party to a second majority government, defeating the Liberal Party of Gordon Campbell. Campbell had become leader of the Liberal Party after Gordon Wilson had been forced out of the position because of his relationship with another Liberal member of the legislature, Judi Tyabji.

After Wilson was defeated by Campbell in the convention to choose a new leader, he and Tyabji left the Liberal Party to establish the Progressive Democratic Alliance. Wilson was able to win re-election, but Tyabji was not, going down to defeat with all of the other candidates fielded by the new party.

The once-dominant Social Credit Party collapsed. Between 1991 and 1996, four of its members defected to Reform BC and two other seats were lost in by-elections. The remaining Socred MLA retired before the election, leaving the party with no incumbents. Party leader Larry Gillanders withdrew from the race while the campaign was in progress, saying that all right wing parties should unite to topple the ruling NDP. The Socreds won only 0.4 percent of the vote and were completely shut out of the legislature, never to return.

Reform BC won two seats.

Although the Liberals won a larger share of the popular vote, most of their votes were wasted in the outer regions of the province; they only won eight seats in the Vancouver area. This allowed the NDP to win reelection, eking out a six-seat majority government.

Results

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
				1991	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change
	New Democrats	Glen Clark	75	51	39	-23.53%	624,395	39.45%	-1.26%
	Liberal	Gordon Campbell	75	17	33	+94.12%	661,929	41.82%	+8.58%
	Reform	Jack Weisgerber	75	-	2		146,734	9.27%	+9.09%
	Progressive Democrat	Gordon Wilson	66	*	1	*	90,797	5.74%	*
	Green	Stuart Parker	71	-	-	-	31,511	1.99%	+1.13%
	Independent/No affiliation		23	-	-	-	10,067	0.64%	-0.07%
	Social Credit	Larry Gillanders	38	7	-	-100%	6,276	0.40%	-23.65%
	Family Coalition		14	-	-	-	4,150	0.26%	+0.17%
	Natural Law		38	*	-	*	2,919	0.18%	*
	Libertarian		17	-	-	-	2,041	0.13%	+0.07%
	Conservative	Peter B. Macdonald	8	-	-	-	1,002	0.06%	+0.03%
	Western Canada Concept	Doug Christie	5	-	-	-	374	0.02%	-0.02%
	Common Sense, Community, Family		5	*	-	*	291	0.02%	*
	Communist		3	-	-	-	218	0.01%	+0.01%
Total			513	75	75	-	1,582,704	100%
Source: Elections BC

Notes:

* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

See also

• List of political parties in British Columbia

External links

• Elections BC 1996 Election
• Losing the vote, winning the election, CBC video