1983 British Columbia general election

Canadian provincial election September 2023 1983 British Columbia general election British Columbia parliamentary no no no 1979 British Columbia general election 1979 1986 British Columbia general election 1986 32nd Parliament of British Columbia 33rd Parliament of British Columbia 57 seats of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia 29 seats were needed for a majority May 5, 1983 70.5%B.C. Voter Participation: 1983 to 2013 http://142.34.128.33/docs/stats/bc-voter-participation-1983-2013.pdf Elections BC May 11, 2017 March 28, 2019 https://web.archive.org/web/20190328040547/https://142.34.128.33/docs/stats/bc-voter-participation-1983-2013.pdf dead x160px BC Social Credit nohash Bill Bennett 1973 BC Social Credit name Okanagan South 31 seats, 48.23% Share of the total popular vote in the previous election 35 4 820,807 49.76% 1.53 x160px BC NDP nohash Dave Barrett 1969 BC NDP name Vancouver East 26 seats, 45.99% Share of the total popular vote in the previous election 22 4 741,354 44.94% 1.05 Premier Bill Bennett BC Social Credit name Premier after election Bill Bennett BC Social Credit name 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 PartyParty leader# ofcandidatesSeatsPopular vote1979Elected% Change#%% Change BC Social Credit row-nameBill Bennett 57 31 35 +12.9% 820,807 49.76% +1.53% BC NDP row-name Dave Barrett 57 26 22 -15.4% 741,354 44.94% -1.05% BC Liberal row-nameShirley McLoughlin 52 - - -44,4422.69% +2.22% BC PC row-nameBrian Westwood 12 - - - 19,131 1.16% -3.90% BC Western Canada Concept row-nameDoug Christie 18 * - * 14,185 0.86% * BC Independent rowIndependent 18 - - - 5,225 0.32% +0.24% BC Green row-nameAdriane Carr 4 * - * 3,078 0.19% * BC Communist row-name  4 - - - 837 0.05% -0.03% BC Western National row-name  2 * - * 474 0.03% *Total2245757-1,649,533100% Source: http://www.elections.bc.ca/elections/electoral_history/33ge1983-1.html https://web.archive.org/web/20041221100653/http://www.elections.bc.ca/elections/electoral_history/33ge1983-1.html 2004-12-21 Electoral History of British Columbia 1871-1986 Part One 33rd General Election 1983 elections.bc.ca dead Note: * Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.Popular vote #ddd 600px 410px Social Credit BC Social Credit 49.76 NDP BC NDP 44.94 Others BC Independent 5.30Seats summary #ddd 600px 410px Social Credit BC Social Credit 61.40 NDP BC NDP 38.60 See also List of British Columbia political parties References Further reading Byers R. B. Canadian Annual Review of Politics and Public Affairs, 1983 1985 University of Toronto Press Toronto 9780802025432 https://archive.org/details/canadianannualre0000unse_v2s5 registration Category: elections in Canada General election Category:May 1983 in Canada