2013 British Columbia general election

The 2013 British Columbia general election took place on May 14, 2013, to elect the 85 members of the 40th Parliament of British Columbia to the Legislative Assembly in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The British Columbia Liberal Party (BC Liberals) formed the government during the 39th Parliament prior to this general election, initially under the leadership of Premier Gordon Campbell then after his resignation, Christy Clark. The British Columbia New Democratic Party (BC NDP) under the leadership of Carole James, and then Adrian Dix, formed the Official Opposition. The BC Green Party under the leadership of Jane Sterk and the BC Conservative Party under John Cummins were also included in polling, although neither party had representation at the end of the 39th Parliament.

The Liberal Party won its fourth straight majority; Clark was defeated in her riding, but she was re-elected to the legislature in a subsequent by-election in Westside-Kelowna on July 10, 2013, after Liberal MLA Ben Stewart stepped down on her behalf. The NDP remained the official opposition, losing two seats, and the Green Party won its first seat.

Despite their victory, the Liberals had been consistently several points behind the opposition New Democrats in every public opinion poll throughout the campaign. Even poll results released on the last day of the campaign suggested that the New Democrats had an eight to nine percentage point margin over the Liberals. Only one pollster, Forum Research, had released a poll which suggested that the Liberals were close enough that a victory was even possible for them, although even that poll had the New Democrats ahead by two percentage points. The Liberals' upset victory led to significant media debate about the quality of opinion polling in Canadian elections.

Timing

Section 23 of British Columbia's Constitution Act provides that general elections occur on the second Tuesday in May of the fourth calendar year after the last election. As an election was held on May 12, 2009, the next election was scheduled for May 14, 2013. The same section, though, makes the fixed election date subject to the Lieutenant Governor's right to dissolve the Legislative Assembly as he or she sees fit.

The writs were dropped April 16, 2013, and the general election was held on May 14, 2013, with advance voting made available on May 8 through 11.

Background

After leading the BC Liberals for 17 years, Gordon Campbell announced he would resign as Premier and party leader in November 2010. This was seen as the result of opposition to the Harmonized Sales Tax, which was very unpopular with voters.

In the ensuing leadership campaign, Christy Clark, the eventual winner, suggested she would prefer to hold an election earlier than 2013 to secure her own mandate. She was believed to be preparing her party for an election as early as autumn 2011. However, due to the unfavourable result from the HST referendum, she decided to rule out an early election.

Political parties

This is a list of political parties who ran candidates in the 2013 election:

Results

MLAs elected

Synopsis of results

  = Open seat

  = turnout is above provincial average

  = winning candidate was in previous Legislature

  = Incumbent had switched allegiance

  = Previously incumbent in another riding

  = Not incumbent; was previously elected to the Legislature

  = Incumbency arose from by-election gain

  = other incumbents renominated

  = previously an MP in the House of Commons of Canada

  = Multiple candidates

Summary analysis

Voter turnout

Voter turnout was 57.1 percent, but varied from riding to riding. 10 of the 85 ridings had less than 50 percent voter turnout. Richmond and Kelowna were the only major cities with under 50 percent turnout.

Retiring incumbents

Seats changing hands

8 incumbent MLAs lost their seats:

Open seats changing hands

Opinion polls

Notes

References

Further reading

• Statement of Votes - 40th Provincial General Election (PDF). Victoria: Elections BC. 2014. ISSN 0227-9207.

External links

• Legislative Assembly Library Election Weblinks