British Columbia Conservative Party

The British Columbia Conservative Party (also known as "the Tories") is a conservative political party in British Columbia, Canada. Its current leader is Barry E. Chilton.

Contents

Founding of the BC Conservative Party

The BC Conservative Party was created by Sir Richard McBride in 1903. McBride believed that the system of non-partisan government that the province had been using was unstable and inhibiting development. When the lieutenant-governor of the province dissolved the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia and called an election, McBride announced that he would form a party to contest the election. His Conservatives won British Columbia's first election fought on the party system on October 3, 1903 with a two seat majority. McBride became Premier of the province. The Tories implemented a policy along the lines of those of the national Conservative Party, which at the time favoured government intervention to help develop industry and infrastructure.

The Conservatives under McBride, and his successor William John Bowser, held power for thirteen years until they were defeated by the Liberals in the 1916 election.

The Tories returned to power in the 1928 election under Simon Fraser Tolmie, the last time the Conservatives would form a majority government in the province. The Tolmie government was unable to deal with the Great Depression, and was racked by infighting and indecision. The party was in such disarray that, despite being in power, the Conservative provincial association decided not to run any candidates in the 1933 election.

In the election of 1941, the Conservatives managed to win 12 seats, compared to 21 for the Liberals and 14 for the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (which became the New Democratic Party in 1961). The Liberals and Conservatives formed a coalition government. The business community feared the growing strength of the social democratic CCF, and supporters of both the Liberals and the Tories argued that a united free market party was needed to keep the CCF from taking power.

The BC Progressive Conservative Party

Missing image
Bcpc.jpg
BC Progressive Conservative Party campaign button.

The tensions between Conservative and Liberal factions mounted over time, and after ten years, the coalition disintegrated. The Conservatives refounded their party in 1951 calling themselves the "Progressive Conservatives" as the federal party had changed adopted the "progressive" prefix in 1942.

W. A. C. Bennett, a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA), ran for the leadership of the Tories and lost. He left the party and joined the small Social Credit League, becoming its leader. Bennett dropped the party's social credit monetary reform policy, and adopted a populist conservative platform.

The coalition government, whose raison d'etre had been to keep the CCF out of power, had introduced a Single Transferable Vote system for the 1952 election in the hope that Conservatives and Liberal supporters would list the other party as their second choice and keep the CCF out of power.

This worked to the benefit of Social Credit, who were able to take advantage of divisions between the Liberals and Conservatives, as well as the desire for change. Bennett's party was able to win a slim minority government with 19 Social Credit MLAs compared to 18 CCFers, 1 Labour, 6 Liberals, and 4 Tories.

It was clear to those who wanted to keep the CCF out of power that only the Social Credit Party would be able to accomplish that task. In the 1953 election, Liberal and Tory supporters transferred their support to Bennett's party, sweeping it to power with 28 out of 48 seats. Having a majority government the Social Credit government changed the electoral system back to first past the post in order to cement their base. Social Credit became, in effect, the new centre-right coalition party, and both the Liberals and the Tories became marginalised.

The Progressive Conservatives won only four seats in 1952, one in 1953, and were completely shut out of the legislature between 1956 and 1972 as conservative-minded voters moved to Social Credit. The Tories managed to win two seats in the 1972 election, and one in the 1975 election, but have not won a single seat since then.

The BC Conservative Party (again)

In 1991, the party changed its name to the BC Conservative Party, but was unable to take advantage of the collapse of Social Credit that year.

It later joined with four other conservative parties to form the British Columbia Unity Party, but that coalition soon fell apart, and the BC Conservative Party was re-established as a separate entity. It remains a fringe party.

On September 1, 2004, BC Unity and the BC Conservatives announced an agreement-in-principle for the two parties to merge under the Conservative Party name.

On September 18, 2004, the delegates in attendance at the BC Conservative AGM in Burnaby voted 24-13 to ratify the Agreement-in-Principle signed by party leader Barry Chilton, but this did not attain the 2/3 vote required to pass. At that point, many delegates left the convention in disgust. A new board of directors was elected immediately following the decision. A new president, Bill Smith, was elected on a promise to support the merger vote, but immediately after his election, refused to allow a motion by members of the new board to accept the majority vote on the AIP. The merger deal, therefore, fell through.

The party nominated 7 candidates in the 2005 election, who won a total of 9,202 votes, 0.55% of the provincial total. None was elected. Three candidates, Colin Black in Okanagan-Vernon, Beryl Ludwig in Shuswap, and David James Evans in Surrey-White Rock, won over 1,000 votes each. Black won over 11.5% of the vote in his riding, while Ludwig won 10%.

Election results

1903-1928
Date of election # of seats
available
# of candidates
nominated
Votes % of
popular vote
# of
seats won
3 October 1903 42 41 27,913 46.43 22
2 February 1907 42 42 30,781 48.70 26
25 November 1909 424253,074 52.33 38
28 March 1912 42 42 50,423 59.65 39
14 September 1916 47 46 72,842 40.52 9
1 December 1920 47 42 110,475 31.20 15
20 June 1924 48 47 101,765 29.45 17
18 July 1928 48 48 192,867 53.30 35
  • In the November 2, 1933 election, because of internal discord, the provincial executive of the Conservative Party decided not to contest the election officially; each local association was to act on its own. Some candidates ran as straight Independents, some as Independent Conservatives; those supporting the premier, Simon Fraser Tolmie, ran as Unionists; and those grouped around William John Bowser, a former premier, ran as Non-Partisans. When Bowser died and the election in Vancouver Centre and Victoria City was postponed, 4 Non-Partisans and 2 UPBC candidates withdrew.
November 2, 1933 (47 seats)
# of candidates
nominated
Votes % of popular vote # of seats won
Non Partisan Independent Group 30 38,836 10.19 2
Unionist Party of British Columbia 12 15,445 4.05 1
Independent Conservative 6 7,114 1.87 -
>
1937-1949
Date of election # of seats
available
Votes% of
popular vote
# of seats won # of candidates
nominated
1 June 1937 48 119,521 28.60 8 43
21 October 1941 48 140,282 30.91 12 43
25 October 1945 (Coalition) 48 261,147 55.83 37 47
15 June 1949 (Coalition) 48 428,773 61.35 39 48
  • Note: In the 1945 and 1949 elections, the BC Conservative Party ran in a coalition with the Liberal Party.
  • In the 1952 and 1953 elections, British Columbia employed a preferential ballot.
1952-1953
Date of election # of seats
available
# of candidates First votes % Final votes % # of seats won
12 June 1952 48 48 129,439 16.84 65,285 9.66 4
9 June 1953 48 39 40,780 5.60 7,326 1.11 1
1956-1991
Date of election # of seats
available
Votes % of
popular vote
# of seats won # of candidates
nominated
19 September 1956 52 25,373 3.11 - 22
12 September 1960 52 66,943 6.72 - 52
30 September 1963 52 109,090 11.27 - 44
12 September 1966 55 1,409 0.18 - 3
27 August 1969 55 1,087 0.11 -1
30 August 1972 55 143,450 12.67 2 49
11 December 1975 55 49,796 3.86 129
26 April 1979 57 71,078 5.06 - 37
5 May 1983 57 19,131 1.16 - 12
22 October 1986 69 14,074 0.73 - 12
17 October 1991 69 426 0.03 - 4
28 May 1996 75 1,002 0.06% - 8
16 May 2001 75 2,417 0.15% - 6
17 May 2005 79 9,202 0.55% - 7

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