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1871 British Columbia general election
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1871 British Columbia general election British Columbia parliamentary no no no 1869 Colony of British Columbia general election 1869 (Colony) 1871 1st Parliament of British Columbia 1875 British Columbia general election 1875 25 seats in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia Premier John Foster McCreight BC Government name Premier after election John Foster McCreight BC Government name
The 1871 British Columbia general election was held from October to December 1871. Formerly a British colony, British Columbia became a province of Canada on July 20, 1871. An interim Cabinet was appointed by the lieutenant governor of British Columbia and election writs for the first general election as a province of Canada were issued to choose 25 members of the first provincial legislature from 12 ridings (electoral districts). These ridings were:
Cariboo (three members)
Comox (one member)
Cowichan (two members)
Esquimalt (two members)
Kootenay (two members)
Lillooet (two members)
Nanaimo (one member)
New Westminster (two members)
New Westminster City (one member)
Victoria (two members)
Victoria City (four members)
Yale (three members)
Polling conditions
The election was held from October through December 1871, and was conducted by means of a show of hands on nomination day and, if required, an open poll book on polling day. There were no organized political parties.
Each voter could cast as many votes as there were seats to fill. Where multiple members were elected, the seats were filled through plurality block voting; elsewhere, first-past-the-post voting was used.https://web.archive.org/web/20081004023944/http://www.elections.bc.ca/index.php/resource-centre/electoral-history-of-bc/ Elections BC
Statistics
Votes: 3,804
Candidates: 46
Members: 25
Vancouver Island
Upper Island 310 votes, four seats (77.5 votes/seat)
Comox: 24 votes (24 votes/seat)
Cowichan: 196 votes (2 seats 98 votes/seat 49 voters/seat)
Nanaimo: 90 votes (90 votes/seat)
"Greater Victoria" 2,074 votes, eight seats (259.25 votes/seat):
Victoria: 377 votes (2 seats 188.5 votes/seat 94.25 voters/seat)
Victoria City: 1,515 (4 seats 378.75 votes/seat 169.3525 voters/seat)
Esquimalt: 182 (2 seats 91 votes/seat 45.5 voters/seat)
Mainland:
Interior 1,907 votes, ten seats (190.7 votes/seat):
Cariboo: 785 votes (3 seats 261.67 votes/seat)
Kootenay: 39 votes (2 seats 19.5 votes/seat)
Lillooet: 102 votes (2 seats 51 votes/seat
Yale: 171 votes (3 seats 57 votes/seat)
Lower Mainland 686 votes (3 seats 228.67 votes/seat:
New Westminster: 323 votes (2 seats 161.5 votes/seat)
New Westminster City: unknown at this time (vote was by acclamation)_
Note that these figures refer to votes actually cast, not the population per se nor the total of the potential voters' list.
Results by riding
Note: There is no arrangement to the ridings and members, other than by rough alphabetical order, as all were technically independents. Actual seating of the House or political alignments are not represented.
Results of British Columbia general election, 1871
|-
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|Cornelius Booth
|align="center" rowspan=3 |Cariboo
|BC Independent background|
|BC Independent background|
|align="center" |Comox
|align="center"|John Ash
|BC Independent background|
|-
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|Joseph Hunter
|BC Independent background|
|BC Independent background|
|align="center" rowspan=2|Cowichan
|align="center"|John Paton Booth
|BC Independent background|
|-
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|George Anthony Boomer Walkem1
|BC Independent background|
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|William Smithe
|BC Independent background|
|-
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|Henry Cogan
|align="center" rowspan=2 |Esquimalt
|BC Independent background|
|BC Independent background|
|align="center" rowspan=2 |Kootenay
|align="center"|John Andrew Mara
|BC Independent background|
|-
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|Alexander Rocke Robertson
|BC Independent background|
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|Charles Todd
|BC Independent background|
|-
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|Thomas Basil Humphreys
|align="center" rowspan=2 |Lillooet
|BC Independent background|
|BC Independent background|
|align="center" |Nanaimo
|align="center"|John Robson
|BC Independent background|
|-
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|Andrew Thomas Jamieson
|BC Independent background|
|BC Independent background|
|align="center" rowspan=2 |New Westminster
|align="center"|William James Armstrong
|BC Independent background|
|-
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|Henry Holbrook
|align="center" |New Westminster City
|BC Independent background|
|BC Independent background|
|align="center" |Josiah Charles Hughes
|BC Independent background|
|-
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|Arthur Bunster
|align="center" rowspan=2 |Victoria
|BC Independent background|
|BC Independent background|
|align="center" rowspan=4 |Victoria City
|align="center"|Robert Beaven
|BC Independent background|
|-
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|Amor De Cosmos
|BC Independent background|
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|Simeon Duck
|BC Independent background|
|-
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|James Robinson
|align="center" rowspan=3 |Yale
|BC Independent background|
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|John Foster McCreight2
|BC Independent background|
|-
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|Charles Augustus Semlin
|BC Independent background|
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|James Trimble
|BC Independent background|
|-
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|Robert Smith
|BC Independent background|
|-
|-
|
|align-left"|1 Premier-Elect
|
|
|
|
|align-left"|2 Incumbent premier
|-
| align="center" colspan="10"|Source: Elections BC
|-
|}
Byelections
Two sets of byelections were held to confirm appointments to the Executive Council (cabinet), as was the custom in earlier times. Ministerial candidates in this series of byelections were all confirmed by acclamation (so there were no actual polling dates). These byelections were:
Esquimalt – Alexander Rocke Robertson, acclaimed November 28, 1871
New Westminster City – Henry Holbrook acclaimed November 28, 1871
Cariboo – George Anthony Boomer Walkem acclaimed February 23, 1872
Comox – John Ash acclaimed, January 11, 1873
Victoria City – Robert Beaven acclaimed January 6, 1873
New Westminster – William James Armstrong acclaimed March 21, 1873
Other byelections were also held due to deaths and other appointments; all were contested:
Cariboo – John George Barnston was elected to replace Cornelius Booth who was appointed to be Clerk of the Bench (provincial court) for the district of Kootenay on April 19, 1872
Lillooet – William Saul was elected December 21, 1872, to replace Andrew Thomas Jamieson, who had died on October 31, 1872
Victoria – November 26, 1874. The byelection was due to resignations February 9, 1874, of A. Bunster and Amor De Cosmos upon winning seats in the federal election January 22, 1874 (in Vancouver and Victoria federal ridings, respectively). William Archibald Robertson and William Fraser Tolmie won the vacant seats.
Lillooet – November 17, 1874. On September 26, 1874, MLAs William Saul and Thomas Basil Humphreys jointly resigned "over a dispute between the two gentlemen as to which represents the popular feeling of the district" (Victoria Colonist September 29, 1874). Humphreys was re-elected and William M. Brown was elected to replace William Saul in a tight three-way race.
Composition of House at dissolution
Note: Government/Opposition status applies to candidate at time of election in 1871, not at time of dissolution in 1875.
Composition of 2nd British Columbia Parliament at Dissolution, 1875
|-
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|John George Barnston
|align="center" rowspan=3 |Cariboo
|BC Independent background|
|BC Independent background|
|align="center" |Comox
|align="center"|John Ash
|BC Independent background|
|-
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|Joseph Hunter
|BC Independent background|
|BC Independent background|
|align="center" rowspan=2|Cowichan
|align="center"|John Paton Booth
|BC Independent background|
|-
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|George Anthony Boomer Walkem
|BC Independent background|
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|William Smithe
|BC Independent background|
|-
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|Henry Cogan
|align="center" rowspan=2 |Esquimalt
|BC Independent background|
|BC Independent background|
|align="center" rowspan=2 |Kootenay
|align="center"|John Andrew Mara
|BC Independent background|
|-
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|Alexander Rocke Robertson
|BC Independent background|
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|Charles Todd
|BC Independent background|
|-
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|Thomas Basil Humphreys
|align="center" rowspan=2 |Lillooet
|BC Independent background|
|BC Independent background|
|align="center" |Nanaimo
|align="center"|John Robson
|BC Independent background|
|-
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|William M. Brown
|BC Independent background|
|BC Independent background|
|align="center" rowspan=2 |New Westminster
|align="center"|William James Armstrong
|BC Independent background|
|-
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|Henry Holbrook
|align="center" |New Westminster City
|BC Independent background|
|BC Independent background|
|align="center" |Josiah Charles Hughes
|BC Independent background|
|-
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|William Archibald Robertson
|align="center" rowspan=2 |Victoria
|BC Independent background|
|BC Independent background|
|align="center" rowspan=4 |Victoria City
|align="center"|Robert Beaven
|BC Independent background|
|-
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|William Fraser Tolmie
|BC Independent background|
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|Simeon Duck
|BC Independent background|
|-
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|James Robinson
|align="center" rowspan=3 |Yale
|BC Independent background|
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|John Foster McCreight
|BC Independent background|
|-
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|Charles Augustus Semlin
|BC Independent background|
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|James Trimble
|BC Independent background|
|-
|BC Independent background|
|align="center"|Robert Smith
|BC Independent background|
|-
|-
|
|align-left"|
|
|
|
|
|align-left"|
|-
| align="center" colspan="10"|Source: Elections BC
|-
|}
See also
1st Parliament of British Columbia
McCreight ministry
1871 British Columbia federal by-elections
Citations
Further reading
In the Sea of Sterile Mountains: The Chinese in British Columbia, Joseph Morton, J.J. Douglas, Vancouver (1974). Despite its title, a fairly thorough account of the politicians and electoral politics in early BC.
1871
Category:1871 elections in Canada
Election
Category:October 1871 in Canada
Category:November 1871 in Canada
Category:December 1871 in Canada