1920 British Columbia general election

The 1920 British Columbia general election was the fifteenth general 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 October 23, 1920, and held on December 1, 1920. The new legislature met for the first time on February 8, 1921.

The legislature of British Columbia in session, 1921

Although it lost eleven seats in the legislature, and fell from 50% of the popular vote to under 38%, the governing Liberal Party was able to hold on to a slim majority in the legislature for its second consecutive term in government.

The Conservative Party also lost a significant share of its popular vote, but won six additional seats for a total of fifteen, and formed the Official Opposition.

Almost a third of the vote and seven seats were won by independents and by a wide variety of fringe parties.

This was the first general election in which women could vote and run for office.

Results

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
				1916	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change
	Liberal^1	John Oliver	45	36	25	-30.6%	134,167	37.89%	-12.11%
	Conservative	William John Bowser	42	9	15	+66.7%	110,475	31.20%	-9.32%
	Independent^2		18	1	3	+200%	36,736	10.37%	+7.63%
	Federated Labour^3		14	*	3	*	32,230	9.10%	*
	People's		1	*	1	*	1,354	0.38%	*
	Socialist^4		7	-	-	-	12,386	3.50%	+2.33%
	Soldier-Farmer/Soldier-Labour^5		11	*	-	*	10,780	3.04%	*
	Grand Army of United Veterans^6		2	*	-	*	5,441	1.54%	*
}	Independent Liberal		3	-	-	-	3,433	0.97%	+0.13%
	United Farmers		2	*	-	*	3,178	0.90%	*
}	Independent Conservative		2	-	-	-	1,602	0.45%	-1.23%
}	Independent Soldier		2	*	-	*	907	0.26%	*
}	Independent Farmer		3	*	-	*	526	0.15%	*
	Liberal/Conservative		1	*	-	*	424	0.12%	*
}	Independent Socialist		1	1	-	-100%	419	0.12%	-0.62%
}	Independent Labour		1	-	-	-	30	0.01%	-1.65%
Total			155	47	47	-	354,088	100%
Source: Elections BC

Notes:

* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

¹ Liberals: One member elected by acclamation. One candidate, J. Oliver, who contested and was elected in both Delta and Victoria City is counted twice.

² Includes Liberty League of B.C., Vancouver Ratepayers Association, and Women's Freedom League candidates.

³ Includes those candidates not directly nominated by, but supported by the Federated Labour Party.

⁴ Includes the Prince Rupert Labour candidate running on a Socialist Party platform.

⁵ Sometimes referred to as a triple alliance of "Farmer-Labour-Soldier" with Soldier-Farmer candidates running in rural Districts (five candidates, 3361 votes) and Soldier-Labour candidates running in urban ones (six candidates, 7419 votes).

⁶ Some GAUV candidates ran on a joint Soldier-Labour ticket.

Popular vote Liberal   37.89% Conservative   31.20% Fed. Labour   9.10% Socialist   3.50% Others   18.31%

Seats summary Liberal   53.19% Conservative   31.91% Fed. Labour   6.38% Others   8.52%

Results by riding

All districts' elections were held as first past the post, except in Vancouver City (where six seats were filled through block voting) and Victoria City (where four seats were filled through block voting).

Results of British Columbia general election, 1920
Government				Opposition
	Member	Riding & party		Riding & party		Member
	Herbert Frederick Kergin	Atlin Liberal			Dewdney Conservative	John Alexander Catherwood
	John MacKay Yorston	Cariboo Liberal			Esquimalt Conservative	Robert Henry Pooley
	Edward Dodsley Barrow	Chilliwack Liberal			Kaslo Conservative	Fred W. Lister
	John Andrew Buckham	Columbia Liberal			Lillooet Conservative	Archibald McDonald
	James Horace King	Cranbrook Liberal			Nelson Conservative	William Oliver Rose
	John Oliver	Delta Liberal			Richmond Conservative	Thomas Pearson
	Henry George Thomas Perry	Fort George Liberal			Rossland Conservative	William Kemble Esling
	Ezra Churchill Henniger	Grand Forks Liberal			Similkameen Conservative	William Alexander McKenzie
	John Duncan MacLean	Greenwood Liberal			South Okanagan Conservative	James William Jones
	Malcolm Bruce Jackson	The Islands Liberal			Trail Conservative	James Hargrave Schofield
	Frederick William Anderson	Kamloops Liberal			Vancouver City Conservative	William John Bowser
	David Whiteside	New Westminster Liberal			Victoria City Conservative	Joshua Hinchcliffe
	Frederick Arthur Pauline	Saanich Liberal			Yale Conservative	John McRae
	William Hunter	Slocan Liberal			Comox People's Party	Thomas Menzies
	John Wallace deBeque Farris	Vancouver City Liberal five out of six seats			Fernie Federated Labour	Thomas Aubert Uphill
	Malcolm Archibald Macdonald				Newcastle Federated Labour	Samuel Guthrie
	Ian Alistair MacKenzie				South Vancouver Federated Labour	Robert Henry Neelands
	James Ramsay				Alberni Independent	Richard John Burde
	Mary Ellen Smith				Cowichan Independent	Kenneth Forrest Duncan
	William Sloan	Nanaimo Liberal			North Vancouver Independent	George Samuel Hanes
	Kenneth Cattanach MacDonald	North Okanagan Liberal
	Alexander Malcolm Manson	Omineca Liberal
	Thomas Dufferin Pattullo	Prince Rupert Liberal
	William Henry Sutherland	Revelstoke Liberal
	Joseph Badenoch Clearihue	Victoria City Liberal three out of four seats
	John Hart
	John Oliver ^1
	^1 Incumbent and Premier-Elect
Source: Elections BC

See also

• List of British Columbia political parties

Further reading & references

• 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.