1983 British Columbia general election
The 1983 British Columbia general election was the 33rd provincial 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 April 7, 1983. The election was held on May 5, 1983. The new legislature that resulted from this election met for the first time on June 23, 1983.
The governing Social Credit Party of British Columbia was re-elected with a majority government, defeating the opposition New Democratic Party of British Columbia. The "Socreds" increased both their share of the popular vote to almost half of all votes cast, and their number of seats in the legislature. No other parties other than the Socreds and the NDP won seats in the legislature.
In addition to 43 single member districts, where single winner First-past-the-post voting was used, this election used seven two-member constituencies. Voters in those places were allowed two votes and generally used them both on the same party. None of those districts elected both a SC and a NDP MLA.
All districts elected either two SC members or two NDP members, with no representation given to the other voters in the district. In the case of Surrey, Social Credit candidates with only a minority of the vote, a combined 71,000 votes of the 150,000 cast, took both seats. That helped ensure the government's capture of the most seats.