Politics of British Columbia
The politics of British Columbia involve not only the governance of British Columbia, Canada, and the various political factions that have held or vied for legislative power, but also a number of experiments or attempts at political and electoral reform.
A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the Crown-in-Council; the legislature, as the Crown-in-Parliament; and the courts, as the Crown-on-the-Bench. Three institutions—the Executive Council ; the Legislative Assembly; and the judiciary, respectively—exercise the powers of the Crown.
Legislature
The Parliament of British Columbia consists of the unicameral Legislative Assembly of British Columbia and the Crown in Parliament. As government power is vested in the Crown, the role of the lieutenant governor is to grant royal assent on behalf of the monarch to legislation passed by the Legislature. The Crown does not participate in the legislative process save for signifying approval to a bill passed by the Assembly.Government
The Legislature plays a role in the election of governments, as the premier and Cabinet hold office by virtue of commanding the body's confidence. Per the tenants of responsible government, Cabinet ministers are almost always elected MLAs, and account to the Legislative Assembly.Opposition
The second-largest party of parliamentary caucus is known as the Official Opposition, who typically appoint MLAs as shadow ministers who critique and scrutinize the work of the government.The Official Opposition is formally termed Majesty's Loyal Opposition to signify that, though they may be opposed to the premier and Cabinet of the day's policies, they remain loyal to Canada, which is personified and represented by the.
History of politics in British Columbia
From BC's start as a province, BC used a mixture of the first-past-the-post electoral system in single-member districts and multi-member districts where voters cast multiple votes. This was in use until 1990. In 1990, single-member districts were instituted across the province.Prior to 1903, there were no political parties in British Columbia, other than at the federal level. One exception to this was the Nationalist Party, BC's first labour party founded in 1894. It elected an MLA in the 1894 and 1898 provincial electionRobert Macpherson.
Sir Richard McBride was the first Premier of British Columbia to declare a party affiliation and institute conventional party/caucus politics.
Since party politics were introduced to British Columbia, there have been a number of political parties which have controlled the government for more than ten years, including the Conservative government of the early 20th century, the interwar [British Columbia British Columbia Liberal Party|Liberal Party|Liberal] government, the post-war [British Columbia British Columbia Social Credit Party|Social Credit Party|Social Credit] government of W.A.C. Bennett and, following a brief reign by the New Democratic under David Barrett, another Social Credit government under his son, Bill Bennett, the NDP government of the 1990s under Mike Harcourt, and the BC Liberal Party Government in the 2000s under Gordon Campbell.
During the 1940s, the government was controlled by a coalition of the Liberals and Conservatives. Neither party had the electoral strength to form a majority, so a coalition was used as a means to prevent the B.C. Co-operative Commonwealth Federation from taking power.
The coalition adopted instant runoff voting hoping to prevent a CCF breakthrough but due to change in voting patterns, the change did not stop the Social Credit party from capturing many seats and winning government in 1952.
From 1972 to 1975, an NDP government led by Dave Barrett held power but was defeated after a showdown with organized labour. Social Credit was returned to power with a new leader - the son of former premier Bill Bennett. Bill Bennett, recruited by the party's old guard, brought in a new style of politics. His government's austerity budget of 1983 spawned opposition in the form of Operation Solidarity. In 1986, Bill Bennett retired from politics. Under the leadership of Bill Vander Zalm, the Socred party was beset by unpopularity and numerous scandals.
The NDP defeated the Socred government and led the province for ten years. Mike Harcourt led the NDP for the first half of this NDP decade, but the party did not have stable leadership after that and had three leaders and premiers over the next five years.
The rejuvenated BC Liberal Party won the next four elections before losing the 2017 election to the NDP government under John Horgan. Again in 2020, the Horgan-led NDP government beat the BC Liberal party, winning a clear majority with 57 out of 81 seats.
After the Liberals' defeat in 2020, the BC Liberal party renamed itself to BC United. In western Canada, politics typically have featured a two-way fight between the CCF or NDP on the left, and a party on the right. In BC since 2020, BC United is that party of the right. The BC Liberal Party is neutral federally and derives its membership from the centre to the centre right. Since its takeover by supporters of Premier Gordon Campbell following the ouster of Gordon Wilson, many consider it to be effectively a rebirth of the defunct BC Social Credit Party.
Electoral reform
Recall and initiative
British Columbia adopted recall-election and initiative legislation in the 1990s. These measures applied following the 1991 referendum.Only one recall petition was ever successful: that compelling MLA Paul Reitsma to resign his seat in 1998 – hours before he would have been removed from office.
Fixed election dates
British Columbia was the first province in Canada to institute fixed election dates. In 2001 four year terms were institutionalized although exceptions are allowed. Previously, British Columbia elections were like most parliamentary jurisdictions, which only require an election within a specified period of time. Later, elections were changed from a spring date to an autumn date.Alternative voting systems
1870 to 1990
From its start as a province, British Columbia used a mixture of single-member districts and multi-member districts. The SMDs used first-past-the post voting to decide the winner in each district; the multi-member districts used plurality block voting to decide the winners. This mixture of multiple-member districts using plurality block voting election system and single-member districts using the first-past-the-post election system was abolished before the 1952 election.In 1951, the Liberal-Conservative coalition governing BC was falling apart. One of the last acts of the coalition government was to adopt the instant-runoff election system, which was implemented for the 1952 general election.
To make the instant-runoff voting system work, single-member contests were used for each seat. Preferential ballots were used -- rather than marking just one vote for one candidate by marking an X on their ballot, as was done under first past the post, under IRV an elector marked their choices of candidates by placing numbers next to the names of the candidates on the ballot. If a candidate received a majority of votes in the first count, that candidate was elected. If not, the candidate with the fewest votes was dropped and the second choice marked on each ballot held by that candidate was used to transfer the vote to one of the remaining candidates. This procedure was repeated until a candidate received a majority of votes, or the majority of votes still in play.
The coalition suffered a defeat due to receiving relatively few votes. Enough members of the Social Credit party were elected to form a Socred minority government, with the CCF forming the official opposition. The Liberals were reduced to four members in the Legislature. The Conservatives elected only three.
The Socred minority government lasted only nine months. The IRV election system was again employed for the ensuing general election. The result this time was a Socred majority. During this term of office, the Socreds abolished the alternative voting system and returned the province to the traditional election system that used both single-member districts where first-past-the-post was used, and multi-member districts where the plurality block voting election system was used.
This mixture of multiple-member districts using plurality block voting election system and single-member districts using the first-past-the-post election system was abolished before the 1991 election, bringing single-member districts and FPTP into use universally.
2000s
In 2004, a Citizens' Assembly recommended replacing the first-past-the-post system with the single transferable vote election system, to be implemented in 2009. A referendum was held on May 17, 2005, in conjunction with that year's general election to determine if voters approved of this change. Change received majority support, but the government said it required passage by 60% of votes cast to make the proposal binding. A second requirement was a majority of votes in 60% of the districts and 77 of the 79 districts achieved this, far more than the 48 minimum. The close result provoked further interest in electoral reform, and the provincial government promised a second referendum on the issue. The second referendum was held in conjunction with the 2009 general election but in that vote change garnered just over 39% of voter support, much less than the required majority.2010s
In 2017 election, the BC NDP campaigned on the promise to hold a referendum on switching to an electoral system of proportional representation. In 2018, a referendum was held with two questions on the ballot. The first question was a binary choice of maintaining the existing first-past-the-post electoral system or moving to a proportional representation electoral system. The second question asked citizens to rank three specific types of proportional representation: dual-member proportional representation, mixed-member proportional representation, and rural–urban proportional representation. If a majority of citizens preferred proportional representation over first-past-the-post, this second question would determine which specific type of proportional representation the province would adopt.When the votes in the first question were counted, most votes showed a preference for the first-past-the-post system over proportional representation, making the second question moot.
Critics suggested that a major reason that proportional representation was defeated was the complexity of the second ballot question. Although much of the general public understood the difference between first-past-the-post and proportional representation, the subtle and numerous differences between dual-member proportional representation, mixed-member proportional representation, and rural–urban proportional representation were less easy to understand, possibly motivating many voters to vote to retain the existing electoral system.