1871 British Columbia general election
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. These ridings were:
- Cariboo
- Comox
- Cowichan
- Esquimalt
- Kootenay
- Lillooet
- Nanaimo
- New Westminster
- New Westminster City
- Victoria
- Victoria City
- Yale
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.
Statistics
- Votes: 3,804
- Candidates: 46
- Members: 25
- Upper Island 310 votes, four seats
- *Comox: 24 votes
- *Cowichan: 196 votes
- *Nanaimo: 90 votes
- "Greater Victoria" 2,074 votes, eight seats :
- *Victoria: 377 votes
- *Victoria City: 1,515
- *Esquimalt: 182
- Interior 1,907 votes, ten seats :
- *Cariboo: 785 votes
- *Kootenay: 39 votes
- *Lillooet: 102 votes
- Lower Mainland 686 votes
- *New Westminster City: unknown at this time _
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.Byelections
Two sets of byelections were held to confirm appointments to the Executive Council, as was the custom in earlier times. Ministerial candidates in this series of byelections were all confirmed by acclamation. 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
- Cariboo – John George Barnston was elected to replace Cornelius Booth who was appointed to be Clerk of the Bench 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. 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". Humphreys was re-elected and William M. Brown was elected to replace William Saul in a tight three-way race.