British Columbia general election, 1903

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The British Columbia general election of 1903 was the tenth general 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 September 5, 1903, and held on October 3, 1903. The new legislature met for the first time on November 26, 1903.

This was the first election in British Columbia that was fought by political parties. Prior to this election, British Columbia politics were non-partisan.

The first election was dominated by the Conservative and Liberal parties, which were affiliated with existing parties at the federal level. See Conservative Party of Canada and Liberal Party of Canada.

The Conservative Party won over 46.4% of the popular vote and a slim majority of the seats in the legislature.

1 Results by party
2 Results by riding
3 See also
4 Further reading & references

[edit] Results by party

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats	Popular vote
Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Elected	#	%
	Conservative ¹		41	22	27,913	46.43 %
	Liberal ¹		39	17	22,715	37.78%
	Socialist		10	2	4,787	7.96%
	Labour ²		5	1	4,421	7.36%
	Socialist Labour		1	-	284	0.47%
Total			95	42	60,120	100%
Sources: Elections BC

Notes:

* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

¹ The Conservative Party and the Liberal Party each elected one candidate by acclamation.

² There was no provincial "Labour Party" as such. Each of the three Electoral Districts with a Labour candidate (Nanaimo, Slocan, and Vancouver City) had a local, autonomous Labour Party. As well, some Liberal candidates appear to have run on a "Liberal-Labour" platform (Atlin, Victoria and Ymir).

[edit] Results by riding

Results of British Columbia general election, 1903
Government			Opposition
	Member	Riding & party	Riding & party		Member
	Henry Esson Young	Atlin Conservative		Alberni Liberal	William Wallace Burns McInnes
	Robert Grant	Comox Conservative		Cariboo Liberal	Harry Jones
	Richard McBride¹	Dewdney Conservative		Cariboo Liberal	James Murphy
	Charles Edward Pooley	Esquimalt Conservative		Chilliwhack Liberal	Charles William Munro
	William Roderick Ross	Fernie Conservative		Columbia Liberal	Wilmer Cleveland Wells
	George Arthur Fraser	Grand Forks Conservative		Cowichan Liberal	John Newell Evans
	Frederick John Fulton	Kamloops Conservative		Cranbrook Liberal	James Horace King
	Robert Francis Green	Kaslo Conservative		Delta Liberal	John Oliver
	John Houston	Nelson City Conservative		Greenwood Liberal	John Robert Brown
	Thomas Gifford	New Westminster City Conservative		The Islands Liberal	Thomas Wilson Paterson²
	Price Ellison	Okanagan Conservative		Rossland City Liberal	James Alexander MacDonald
	Thomas Taylor	Revelstoke Conservative		Saanich Liberal	Henry Ernest Tanner
	Francis Lovett Carter-Cotton	Richmond Conservative		Slocan Liberal	William Davidson
	Lytton Wilmot Shatford	Similkameen Conservative		Victoria City Liberal	William George Cameron
	Charles William Digby Clifford	Skeena Conservative			Robert Low Drury
	Charles William John Bowser	Vancouver City Conservative			Richard Hall
	James Ford Garden				James Dugald McNiven
	Alexander Henry Boswell MacGowan			Yale Liberal	Stuart Alexander Henderson
	Robert Garnet Tatlow			Nanaimo City Socialist	James Hurst Hawthornthwaite
	Charles Wilson			Newcastle Socialist	Parker Williams
	Harry Wright	Ymir Conservative
	¹ Premier-Elect
		² Leader of the Opposition
Source: Elections BC

[edit] See also

List of British Columbia political parties

[edit] Further reading & references

In the Sea of Sterile Mountains: The Chinese in British Columbia, Joseph Morton, J.J. Douglas, Vancouver (1974). Despite its title, a fairly thorough account of the politicians and electoral politics in early BC.