1983 British Columbia general election

1983 British Columbia general election

May 5, 1983
57 seats of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia 29 seats were needed for a majority
Turnout	70.5%
First party Second party   Leader Bill Bennett Dave Barrett Party Social Credit New Democratic Leader since 1973 1969 Leader's seat Okanagan South Vancouver East Last election 31 seats, 48.23% 26 seats, 45.99% Seats won 35 22 Seat change 4 4 Popular vote 820,807 741,354 Percentage 49.76% 44.94% Swing 1.53 1.05
Premier before election Bill Bennett Social Credit Premier after election Bill Bennett Social Credit

The 1983 British Columbia general election was the 33rd provincial election for 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 7, 1983. The election was held on May 5, 1983. The new legislature that resulted from this election met for the first time on June 23, 1983.

The governing Social Credit Party of British Columbia was re-elected with a majority government, defeating the opposition New Democratic Party of British Columbia. The "Socreds" increased both their share of the popular vote to almost half of all votes cast, and their number of seats in the legislature. No other parties other than the Socreds and the NDP won seats in the legislature.

In addition to 43 single member districts, where single winner First-past-the-post voting was used, this election used seven two-member constituencies. Voters in those places were allowed two votes (plurality block voting) and generally used them both on the same party. None of those districts elected both a SC and a NDP MLA.

All districts elected either two SC members (4 districts) or two NDP members (three districts), with no representation given to the other voters in the district. In the case of Surrey, Social Credit candidates with only a minority of the vote, a combined 71,000 votes of the 150,000 cast, took both seats. That helped ensure the government's capture of the most seats. (The use of both first past the post and block voting also makes the "popular vote," the number of votes cast, not truly reflective of the sentiment of the voters, because some voters in those seven districts cast two votes and the voters in the other 43 districts cast only one.)

Results

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
				1979	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change
	Social Credit	Bill Bennett	57	31	35	+12.9%	820,807	49.76%	+1.53%
	New Democratic	Dave Barrett	57	26	22	-15.4%	741,354	44.94%	-1.05%
	Liberal	Shirley McLoughlin	52	-	-	-	44,442	2.69%	+2.22%
	Progressive Conservative	Brian Westwood	12	-	-	-	19,131	1.16%	-3.90%
	Western Canada Concept	Doug Christie	18	*	-	*	14,185	0.86%	*
	Independent		18	-	-	-	5,225	0.32%	+0.24%
	Green	Adriane Carr	4	*	-	*	3,078	0.19%	*
	Communist		4	-	-	-	837	0.05%	-0.03%
	Western National		2	*	-	*	474	0.03%	*
Total			224	57	57	-	1,649,533	100%
Source:

Note:

* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

Popular vote Social Credit   49.76% NDP   44.94% Others   5.30%

Seats summary Social Credit   61.40% NDP   38.60%

See also

• List of British Columbia political parties

Further reading

• Byers, R. B., ed. (1985). Canadian Annual Review of Politics and Public Affairs, 1983. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 9780802025432.