2001 British Columbia Election

The 2001 British Columbia general election was the 37th provincial 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 18, 2001 and held on May 16, 2001. Voter turnout was 55.4 per cent of all eligible voters.

The incumbent British Columbia New Democratic Party (BC NDP), in office since 1991, had been rocked by two major scandals—the Fast Ferries Scandal and a bribery scandal involving Premier Glen Clark. With the NDP's ratings flatlining, Clark resigned in August 1999, and Deputy Premier Dan Miller took over as caretaker premier until Ujjal Dosanjh was elected his permanent successor in February. Dosanjh was not, however, able to restore the party's public image, and the BC NDP suffered a resounding defeat at the hands of the British Columbia Liberal Party (BC Liberals), led by former Vancouver mayor Gordon Campbell. The BC Liberals won over 57% of the popular vote, and an unprecedented 77 of the 79 seats in the provincial legislature—the largest victory in the province's electoral history.

The BC NDP, on the other hand, suffered a near-total political collapse. The party lost almost half of the share of the popular vote that it had won in the 1996 election, while its seat count fell from 39 seats to only two—those of Deputy Premier and Education Minister Joy MacPhail and Community Development Minister Jenny Kwan. It was easily the worst defeat of a sitting government in British Columbia history. It was also the second-worst defeat of a sitting provincial government in Canada, eclipsed only by the New Brunswick election of 1987, the Alberta election of 1935, and the Prince Edward Island election of 1935. In each of those elections, the governing party–the New Brunswick Tories, the United Farmers of Alberta and the PEI Tories–was completely wiped off the map. Dosanjh resigned as party leader soon after the election; he had actually conceded defeat a week before voters went to the polls. Despite being the only other party in the Assembly, the BC NDP lacked the four seats then required for official party status.

The British Columbia Unity Party had been created as a union of conservative parties. Initially, Reform BC, Social Credit, the British Columbia Party, and the Family Coalition Party had joined under the "BC Unity" umbrella. By the time the election was called, however, only the Family Coalition Party and a large majority of Reform BC segments had remained in the BC Unity coalition. The other parties had withdrawn to continue independently. The parties would collectively only earn around 4% of the vote, as voters, conscious of vote-splitting that had taken place between the Liberals, Reform BC, and the since-defunct Progressive Democratic Alliance in 1996, united behind the Liberals this time. Ron Gamble, sometime leader and sometime president of the renewed Reform BC continued his opposition to conservative mergers, consistently proclaiming a "Say No to Chris Delaney & BC Unity" policy, until Unity's eventual collapse in 2004 after a failed second attempt at a merger with BC Conservatives.

2000 redistribution of ridings

An Act was passed in 2000 providing for an increase of seats from 75 to 79, upon the next election. The following changes were made:

Opinion polls

During campaign period

During 36th Legislative Assembly of British Columbia

Region-specific polls

Southern Vancouver Island

Riding-specific polls

Vancouver-Kensington

Results

Notes

x – less than 0.005% of the popular vote.

* The party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

Unity Party results are calculated relative to Family Coalition Party 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

See also

* List of British Columbia political parties

References

Further reading

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External links

Elections BC 2001 Election

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2001
2001 elections in Canada
Election
May 2001 in Canada