1979 British Columbia general election
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (July 2021) |
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
57 seats of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia 29 seats were needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
.jpg)
The 1979 British Columbia general election was the 32nd 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 April 3, 1979. The election was held on May 10, 1979, and the new legislature met for the first time on June 6, 1979.
The governing
New Democratic Party of former premier Dave Barrett
, which won just under 46% of the popular vote and all of the remaining seats in the legislature. The NDP made up much of the ground it had lost in its severe defeat of four years earlier. However, the Socreds dominated the Fraser Valley and the Interior, allowing Bennett to cling to government by three seats.
Of the other parties, only the
Liberals were shut out of the legislature, garnered only 0.5% of the vote, and did not return until 1991
.
Results
| Party | Party leader | # of candidates |
Seats | Popular vote | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | Elected | % Change | # | % | % Change | ||||
| Social Credit | Bill Bennett
|
57 | 35 | 31 | -11.4% | 677,607 | 48.23% | -1.02% | |
New Democrats
|
Dave Barrett | 57 | 18 | 26 | 44.4% | 646,188 | 45.99% | +6.83% | |
Progressive Conservative
|
Victor Stephens | 37 | 1 | - | -100% | 71,078 | 5.06% | +1.20% | |
Liberal
|
Jev Tothill | 5 | 1 | - | -100% | 6,662 | 0.47% | -6.77% | |
| Communist | 7 | - | - | - | 1,159 | 0.08% | -0.03% | ||
| Independent | 5 | - | - | - | 1,098 | 0.08% | -0.28% | ||
| Western Independence | 2 | * | - | * | 555 | 0.04% | * | ||
| North American Labour | 4 | - | - | - | 297 | 0.02% | +0.01% | ||
| Marxist–Leninist | 2 | * | - | * | 235 | 0.02% | * | ||
| Gay Alliance Toward Equality | 1 | * | - | * | 126 | 0.01% | * | ||
| Independent New Hope | 1 | * | - | * | 72 | 0.01% | * | ||
| Total | 178 | 55 | 57 | +3.6% | 1,405,077 | 100% | |||
| Source: [1] | |||||||||
Note:
* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.
See also
References
- ^ "Electoral History of British Columbia 1871-1986 Part One 32nd General Election 1979". elections.bc.ca. Archived from the original on December 21, 2004.
Further reading
- Byers, R.B. (1981). Canadian annual review of politics and public affairs. 1979. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-1-4426-7193-5.