2005 British Columbia general election

The 2005 British Columbia general election was held on May 17, 2005, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of British Columbia, Canada. The Liberal Party formed the government of the province prior to this general election under the leadership of Premier Gordon Campbell. The main opposition was the British Columbia New Democratic Party, whose electoral representation was reduced to two MLAs in the previous provincial election in 2001.
The BC Liberals retained power, with a reduced majority of 46 out of 79 seats, down from the record 77 out of 79 in 2001. While the popularity of Campbell's government was affected by various factors such as its resolution of the Fast ferry scandal inherited from the previous NDP government, the sale of BC Rail, and Campbell being convicted for driving under the influence in January 2003, the overwhelming majority they earned at the previous election held up well enough for them to remain comfortably in control of the Legislative Assembly. Voter turnout was 58.2 per cent.
Under amendments to the BC Constitution Act passed in 2001, BC elections are now held on fixed dates: the second Tuesday in May every four years. This was the first provincial election for which elector data in the provincial elector list was synchronised with the National Register of Electors.
Coincidental with the general election, BC voters also voted on whether or not to change the province's electoral system.

Electoral reform referendum

The BC electoral reform referendum was held in conjunction with this election. This referendum asked voters whether or not they support the proposed electoral reforms of the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform, which included switching to a single transferable vote, the new electoral system would have been implemented for the general election in 2009. Although the proposed reform attracted a clear majority, the level of support was just short of that required for mandatory implementation. A new vote on a revamped version of STV was held in conjunction with the 2009 British Columbia general election.

MLAs elected

Summary analysis

Parties	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
	33	44	2
	46	33
		1	74	4
		1	1	7	11
			2	5
				25	15
				22	6
				2	3
				2
				2
				1
				1
				1
				1
				1
				1
					8
					3
					2
					2
					2
					1
					1
					1
					1

Results by region

xx Denotes party received less than 0.1%

Timeline

Pre-campaign period

August 30, 2001 – Bill 7, Constitution Amendment Act is passed, fixing the date of the election at May 17, 2005.
November 13, 2002 – Liberal MLA Paul Nettleton accuses the government of a secret plan to privatize BC Rail as well the BC Hydro electric utility. He is removed from caucus several days later and sits as an Independent Liberal until the 2005 election, when he unsuccessfully ran in Prince George-Mount Robson against Shirley Bond. BC Rail was subsequently sold to CN in what other bidders have described as a corrupted process, and BC Hydro's administrative arm was sold to Accenture.
January 9, 2003 – Premier Gordon Campbell is arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol on Maui. Because drunk driving is not a criminal offence in the state of Hawaii, but only a misdemeanour, Campbell did not resign his seat as he would have had to in Canada, and due to pressure from Mothers Against Drunk Driving he attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and a series of speaking engagements condemning drinking and driving.
November 23, 2003 – Carole James is elected as leader of the New Democratic Party of British Columbia.
December 28, 2003 – the RCMP execute search warrants on various locations in the Lower Mainland and Greater Victoria, including offices in the Parliament Buildings in Victoria, in relation to suspicious dealings in relation to the bidding process for the sale of BC Rail.
March 22, 2004 – Liberal MLA Elayne Brenzinger quits the caucus citing a "secret agenda" being undertaken by Premier Campbell in relation to the sale of BC Rail.
September 17, 2004 – Deputy Premier Christy Clark, whose house had been searched under warrant by the RCMP in connection with the BC Legislature Raids investigation, quits politics saying she wanted to spend more time with her family.
October 22, 2004 – New Democrat Jagrup Brar wins a by-election in Surrey-Panorama Ridge with 53.6% of the vote, a swing of 33.7% to the NDP from the 2001 result. One of Brar's competitors was Green leader Adriane Carr who captured 8.4% of the vote.
December 14, 2004 – In the wake of revelations he had been under surveillance by the RCMP in connection with dealings concerning the sale of BC Rail, Liberal Finance Minister Gary Farrell-Collins abruptly resigns from cabinet and the legislature despite having been named co-chair of the Liberal re-election campaign a month earlier. The move requires Premier Campbell to undertake a minor cabinet shuffle.
January 15, 2005 – The Democratic Reform British Columbia party is created out of a merger of the British Columbia Democratic Coalition and the All Nations Party of British Columbia. The party also boasts the support of key elements of the Reform Party of British Columbia. Prior to the official creation of this party, the Democratic Coalition and Reform BC jointly nominated a candidate for the Surrey-Panorama Ridge by-election.
January 19, 2005 – Independent MLA Elayne Brenzinger joins DRBC, adding a third party to the Legislative Assembly for the first time since Gordon Wilson folded his Progressive Democratic Alliance party and joined the NDP.
January 31, 2005 – Liberal MLA and then-cabinet minister Sandy Santori resigns from his seat in the Legislature in a dispute over the deletion of emails by Premier Gordon Campbell's Deputy Minister to the Premier, Ken Dobell.
February 15, 2005 – New Liberal Finance Minister Colin Hansen introduces what is widely viewed as an "election budget" which promised $1.3 billion in new spending, tax cuts and an economic surplus.
March 11, 2005 – Attorney-General Geoff Plant announces that he will not seek re-election.
March 15, 2005 – Canadian Broadcasting Corporation board chair Carole Taylor announces that she will run for the Liberals in the riding of Vancouver-Langara. Premier Gordon Campbell endorses Taylor's candidacy.
March 29, 2005 – The consortium of television stations organizing the leaders' debate announces that the leaders of the Liberal, New Democratic, and Green parties will be invited to participate in the debate.
April 13, 2005 – The NDP and Green Party release their platforms in Victoria.

Campaign period

April 19, 2005 – The writ of election is issued, dissolving the Legislature and beginning the official campaign period.
April 20, 2005 – The NDP becomes the first party to complete a province-wide nomination slate.
April 22, 2005 – NDP candidate Rollie Keith withdraws his candidacy in Chilliwack-Kent after telling the Vancouver Province that he was "impressed" when he met Slobodan Milošević and that he did not believe there had been war crimes committed in Kosovo.
May 3, 2005 – The leaders of the Liberal, NDP and Green parties meet in a televised debate. Commentators indicate the debate was either a draw or a win for Green leader Adriane Carr. An Ipsos-Reid poll conducted online following the debate showed that 33% of debate views thought the debate produced no clear winner, 31% felt NDP leader Carole James won, 23% felt Liberal leader Gordon Campbell won while only 12% saw Carr as the winner.
May 17, 2005 – CBC projects a BC Liberal majority government at 9:05 p.m. local time.
June 22, 2005 – Tim Stevenson, who lost to Lorne Mayencourt by 11 votes, asks the Supreme Court of British Columbia to order a new election in Vancouver-Burrard due to 70 ballots that could not be counted because they had not been initialed by election officials.

Opinion polls

Voter intention polling

Besides the usual public polling by market research firms, other organizations have been attempting to predict the results of the upcoming election using alternate methods. Results suggest that all three projections below underestimated NDP seats and overestimated Liberal seats:
UBC's Election Stock Market tracks the prices of contracts whose value depend on election results:

Popular vote: Lib 44.5%, NDP 35.9%, Green 13.9%, Other 5.3%

Seats: Lib 48.6, NDP 29.4, Other 1.6

The aggregates submissions from the Internet and subjectively predicts winners based on the submissions :

Seats: Lib 50, NDP 29, Other 0
Will McMartin at the progressive online newspaper makes by looking at "historic election results and selected demographics, as well as public opinion polls, regional sources and input from Election Central readers" :

Seats: Lib 51, NDP 28, Other 0.

Political parties

British Columbia has Canada's least restrictive elections laws with regard to political party registration, and consequently there are currently nearly 50 parties registered with Elections BC, by far the most of any jurisdiction in the country. Twenty-five parties contested the 2005 election, also a considerably greater number than anywhere else in Canada.