British Columbia General Election, 1996

The 36th provincial election in the Province of British Columbia, Canada was called on April 30, 1996, and held on May 28, 1996. New Democratic Party leader and provincial premier Mike Harcourt had resigned as the result of a fundraising scandal involving one of the members of his caucus. Glen Clark was chosen by the party to replace Harcourt. Clark led the party to a second majority government, defeating the Liberal Party of Gordon Campbell. Campbell had become leader of the Liberal Party after Gordon Wilson had been forced out of the position because of his relationship with another Liberal member of the legislature, Judy Tyabji. Campbell is believed to have lost the election because of a promise to privatize BC Rail. After Wilson was defeated by Campbell in the convention to chose a new leader, he and Tyabji left the Liberal Party to establish the Progressive Democratic Alliance. Wilson was able to win re-election, but Tyabji was not, going down to defeat with all of the other candidates fielded by the new party. Reform BC, a splinter group from the once-dominant Social Credit Party, won two seats. Although the Liberal Party won a larger share of the popular vote, the NDP won a majority of the seats in the Legislature. The result of this election helped convince the Liberal Party to become a major advocate for electoral reform.

Election results

owspan="2"|Party rowspan="2"|Party Leader rowspan="2"|# of candidates colspan="3"|Seats colspan="3"|Popular Vote
lign="center"|Previous align="center"|After align="center"|% Change align="center"|# align="center"|% align="center"|Change
a href="/encyclopedia/New-Democratic-Party-of-British-Columbia" title="New Democratic Party of British Columbia">New Democratic Glen Clark align="right"| 75 align="right"| 51 align="right"| 39 align="right"| -23.53% align="right"| 624,395 align="right"|39.45% align="right"| -1.26%
a href="/encyclopedia/British-Columbia-Liberal-Party" title="British Columbia Liberal Party">Liberal Gordon Campbell align="right"| 75 align="right"| 17 align="right"| 33 align="right"| +94.12% align="right"| 661,929 align="right"|41.82% align="right"| +8.58%
a href="/encyclopedia/Reform-Party-of-British-Columbia" title="Reform Party of British Columbia">Reform Jack Weisgerber align="right"| 75 align="right"|- align="right"| 2 align="right"| align="right"| 146,734 align="right"|9.27% align="right"| +9.09%
a href="/encyclopedia/Progressive-Democratic-Alliance" title="Progressive Democratic Alliance">Progressive Democratic Gordon Wilson align="right"| 66 align="right"| n.a. align="right"| 1 align="right"| n.a. align="right"| 90,797 align="right"|5.74% align="right"| n.a.
a href="/encyclopedia/Green-Party-of-British-Columbia" title="Green Party of British Columbia">Green Stuart Parker align="right"| 71 align="right"|- align="right"| - align="right"| - align="right"| 31,511 align="right"|1.99% align="right"| +1.13%
ndependent/No affiliation align="center"| align="right"| 23 align="right"|- align="right"| - align="right"| - align="right"| 10,067 align="right"|0.64% align="right"| -0.07%
a href="/encyclopedia/British-Columbia-Social-Credit-Party" title="British Columbia Social Credit Party">Social Credit Larry Gillanders align="right"| 38 align="right"| 7 align="right"| - align="right"| -100% align="right"| 6,276 align="right"|0.40% align="right"| -23.65%
a href="/encyclopedia/Family-Coalition-Party-of-British-Columbia" title="Family Coalition Party of British Columbia">Family Coalition align="center"| align="right"| 14 align="right"|- align="right"| - align="right"| - align="right"| 4,150 align="right"|0.26% align="right"| +0.17%
a href="/encyclopedia/Natural-Law-Party-of-Canada" title="Natural Law Party of Canada">Natural Law align="center"| align="right"| 38 align="right"| n.a. align="right"| - align="right"| n.a. align="right"| 2,919 align="right"|0.18% align="right"| n.a.
a href="/encyclopedia/Libertarian-Party-of-British-Columbia" title="Libertarian Party of British Columbia">Libertarian align="center"| align="right"| 17 align="right"|- align="right"| - align="right"| - align="right"| 2,041 align="right"|0.13% align="right"| +0.07%
a href="/encyclopedia/British-Columbia-Conservative-Party" title="British Columbia Conservative Party">Conservative align="center"| align="right"|8 align="right"|- align="right"|- align="right"| - align="right"| 1,002 align="right"|0.06% align="right"| +0.03%
a href="/encyclopedia/Western-Canada-Concept-Party-of-British-Columbia" title="Western Canada Concept Party of British Columbia">Western Canada Concept Doug Christie align="right"|5 align="right"|- align="right"|- align="right"| - align="right"| 374 align="right"|0.02% align="right"| -0.02%
a href="/encyclopedia/Common-Sense,-Community,-Family-Party" title="Common Sense, Community, Family Party">Common Sense, Community, Family align="center"| align="right"|5 align="right"| n.a. align="right"|- align="right"| n.a. align="right"| 291 align="right"|0.02% align="right"| n.a.
a href="/encyclopedia/Communist-Party-of-British-Columbia" title="Communist Party of British Columbia">Communist align="center"| align="right"|3 align="right"|- align="right"|- align="right"| - align="right"| 218 align="right"|0.01% align="right"| +0.01%
otal align="center"| align="right"| 513 align="right"|75 align="right"| 75 align="right"| - align="right"| 1,582,704 align="right"|100% align="right"|

External links

Preceded by:
British Columbia general election, 1991
List of British Columbia elections Followed by:
British Columbia general election, 2001

 

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