1945 British Columbia general election
The 1945 British Columbia general election was the twenty-first 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 August 31, 1945, and held on October 25, 1945. The new legislature met for the first time on February 21, 1946.
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48 seats of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia 25 seats needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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A centre-right coalition was formed by the Liberal and Conservative parties in order to defeat the social democratic Co-operative Commonwealth Federation.
Although the Coalition won fewer votes than the Liberal and Conservative parties won in total in the previous election, the Coalition still won over half of the votes, and was able to form a majority government.
Results
| Party | Party leader | # of candidates |
Seats | Popular vote | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1941 | Elected | % Change | # | % | % Change | |||||
| Liberal | Coalition1 | John Hart | 47 | 33 | 37 | +12.1% | 261,147 | 55.83% | -8.02% | |
| Progressive Conservative | Royal Lethington Maitland | |||||||||
| Co-operative Commonwealth fed. | Harold Winch | 48 | 14 | 10 | -28.6% | 175,960 | 37.62% | +4.26% | ||
| Labour | Tom Uphill | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | 1,289 | 0.28% | -1.29% | ||
| Labour Progressive | 21 | * | - | * | 16,479 | 3.52% | * | |||
| Social Credit (alliance)2 | 16 | * | - | * | 6,627 | 1.42% | * | |||
| People's CCF | 2 | * | - | * | 2,786 | 0.60% | * | |||
| Independent3 | 2 | - | - | - | 1,532 | 0.33% | -0.03% | |||
| Independent Progressive Conservative4 | 2 | * | - | * | 748 | 0.16% | * | |||
| Democratic | 1 | * | - | * | 423 | 0.09% | * | |||
| Socialist Labour | 3 | - | - | - | 285 | 0.06% | -0.09% | |||
| Independent Liberal | 1 | * | - | * | 199 | 0.04% | * | |||
| Independent Labour | 1 | * | - | * | 106 | 0.02% | * | |||
| Socialist | 1 | * | - | * | 105 | 0.02% | * | |||
| Progressive Liberal | 1 | * | - | * | 61 | 0.01% | * | |||
| Total | 147 | 48 | 48 | - | 467,747 | 100% | ||||
| Source: Elections BC | ||||||||||
Notes:
* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.
1 Compared to Liberal + Conservative total from previous election
2 Various groups joined forces under the Social Credit name to contest the election.
3 Thomas Dufferin Pattullo (Prince Rupert), former premier and Liberal Party leader, ran as an Independent, and is included as such.
4 Includes L.H. MacQueen (Saanich), classified as an Independent PC since the Progressive Conservative Party, formerly the Conservative Party, was officially running as part of the Coalition and did not consider MacQueen as a legitimate party candidate.
Results by riding
See also
| General elections | |
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| Municipal elections | |
| Referendums | |
See also: List of British Columbia by-elections | |
- The Liberals and Conservatives ran separately in the 1941 election. In that election, the Liberals won 21 seats and the Conservatives won 12 seats.