1979 British Columbia general election

The 1979 British Columbia general election was the 32nd general election in 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 3, 1979. The election was held on May 10, 1979, and the new legislature met for the first time on June 6, 1979.

1979 British Columbia general election

May 10, 1979
57 seats of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia 29 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   PC Leader Bill Bennett Dave Barrett Victor Stephens Party Social Credit New Democratic Progressive Conservative Leader since 1973 1969 1977 Leader's seat Okanagan South Vancouver East Oak Bay-Gordon Head (lost re-election) Last election 35 seats, 49.25% 18 seats, 39.16% 1 seat, 3.86% Seats won 31 26 0 Seat change 4 8 1 Popular vote 677,607 646,188 71,078 Percentage 48.23% 45.99% 5.06% Swing 1.02 6.83 1.20
Premier before election Bill Bennett Social Credit Premier after election Bill Bennett Social Credit

The governing Social Credit Party of British Columbia of Bill Bennett was re-elected with a majority government, and won almost half of the popular vote. The electorate was polarized between the Socreds and the social democratic New Democratic Party of former premier Dave Barrett, which won just under 46% of the popular vote and all of the remaining seats in the legislature. The NDP made up much of the ground it had lost in its severe defeat of four years earlier. However, the Socreds dominated the Fraser Valley and the Interior, allowing Bennett to cling to government by three seats.

Of the other parties, only the Progressive Conservatives won over 1% of the popular vote, but their 5% of the vote did not enable them to hold on to their single seat in the legislature. That party was shut out until 2024. The party leader, Victor Stephens, complained during the campaign that the Federal PC Party was providing no assistance to the provincial party and favoured Social Credit instead. That caused embarrassment for the federal party leader, Joe Clark, who was leading his own election campaign for the May 22, 1979 federal election. The Liberals were shut out of the legislature, garnered only 0.5% of the vote, and did not return until 1991.

Results

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
				1975	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change
	Social Credit	Bill Bennett	57	35	31	-11.4%	677,607	48.23%	-1.02%
	New Democrats	Dave Barrett	57	18	26	44.4%	646,188	45.99%	+6.83%
	Progressive Conservative	Victor Stephens	37	1	-	-100%	71,078	5.06%	+1.20%
	Liberal	Jev Tothill	5	1	-	-100%	6,662	0.47%	-6.77%
	Communist		7	-	-	-	1,159	0.08%	-0.03%
	Independent		5	-	-	-	1,098	0.08%	-0.28%
	Western Independence		2	*	-	*	555	0.04%	*
	North American Labour		4	-	-	-	297	0.02%	+0.01%
	Marxist–Leninist		2	*	-	*	235	0.02%	*
	Gay Alliance Toward Equality		1	*	-	*	126	0.01%	*
	Independent New Hope		1	*	-	*	72	0.01%	*
Total			178	55	57	+3.6%	1,405,077	100%
Source:

Note:

* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

Popular vote Social Credit   48.23% NDP   45.99% PC   5.06% Others   0.72%

Seats summary Social Credit   54.39% NDP   45.61%

See also

• List of British Columbia political parties

Further reading

• Byers, R.B. (1981). Canadian annual review of politics and public affairs. 1979. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-1-4426-7193-5.