British Columbia general election, 1975

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The British Columbia general election of 1975 was the 31st general 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 November 3, 1975, and held on December 11, 1975. The new legislature met for the first time on March 17, 1976.

The governing New Democratic Party of David Barrett was defeated after three years in government. Bill Bennett, son of long-time Social Credit Party leader and BC premier, W.A.C. Bennett, led Social Credit back to power, winning close to half of the popular vote, and a solid majority in the legislature.

Voters abandoned the Liberal and Progressive Conservative parties as the centre and right-wing vote coalesced around Social Credit. The defeated social democratic NDP suffered only a marginal decrease in its vote share.

[edit] Results

Party Party leader # of
candidates
Seats Popular vote
1972 Elected % Change # % % Change
     Social Credit Bill Bennett 55 10 35 +250% 635,482 49.25% +18.09%
     New Democrats Dave Barrett 55 38 18 -52.6% 505,396 39.16% -0.43%
     Liberal Gordon Gibson 49 5 1 -80.0% 93,379 7.24% -9.16%
     Progressive Conservative George Scott Wallace 29 2 1 -50.0% 49,796 3.86% -8.81%
     Independent 12 - - - 4,688 0.36% +0.26%
     Communist   13 - - - 1,441 0.11% +0.03%
     North American Labour   4 * - * 141 0.01% *
     Revolutionary Marxist Group   3 * - * 94 0.01% *
     League for Socialist Action   1 * - * 34 x *
Total 221 55 55 - 1,290,451 100%  
Source: Elections BC

Notes:

* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

x - less than 0.005% of the popular vote

[edit] See also