1856 Vancouver Island election
Members elected to the First House of Assembly of Vancouver Island which sat from August 12, 1856, to December 7, 1859. The election was two years before the first newspaper started so there is no known record of the vote totals.
This was not a free election. There were property qualifications for candidates and for voters.
Only 40 could vote In the whole colony.
A mix of multi-member districts and single-member districts:
Victoria 3 members
Esquimalt 2 members
Sooke 1 member
Nanaimo 1 member.
Likely block voting was used in the multi-member districts and first-past-the-post voting in the single member districts, if a vote was held at all.
Constituency
Victoria District- Edward Edwards Langford - election contested and he was removed 26 August 1856 and replaced by Joseph William McKay on December 3, 1856
- Joseph Despard Pemberton
- James Yates
Sooke District
- John Muir, resigned 5 May 1857
- Dr. John Frederick Kennedy