British Columbia general election, 1937

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The British Columbia general election of 1937 was the nineteenth 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 14, 1937, and held on June 1, 1937. The new legislature met for the first time on October 26, 1937.

The governing Liberal Party , despite winning only 37% of the popular vote, benefited from the split in the vote between the Conservative Party and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, and won a solid majority of the seats in the legislature.

The rift in the Conservative Party that led to its decision not to nominate candidates in the 1933 election had been resolved, and the party was able to form the official opposition.

The Conservatives and CCF each won about 29% of the vote, and only 8 seats and 7 seats, respectively. The remaining two seats were won by Labour and Independent candidates.

[edit] Results

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
Party		Party leader	# of candidates	1933	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change
	Liberal		48	34	31	-8.8%	156,074	37.34%	-4.40%
	Conservative¹		43	2	8	+300%	119,521	28.60%	+24.55%
	Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.		46	7	7	-	119,400	28.57%	-2.96%
	Independent		11	2	1	-50.0%	7,341	1.76%	-5.98%
	Labour		2	1	1	-	1,787	0.43%	-0.19%
	Constructivist	Robert Connell	14	*	-	*	8,086	1.93%	*
	Social Credit League		18	*	-	*	4,812	1.15%	*
	Communist		1	*	-	*	567	0.14%	*
	Socialist		2	*	-	*	287	0.07%	*
	Financial Justice		1	*	-	*	54	0.01%	*
Total			186	47	48	+2.1%	417,929	100%
Source: Elections BC

Notes:

* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

¹ Results compared to those of Unionist Party of British Columbia in previous election.

[edit] Results by Riding

Results of British Columbia general election, 1937
Government			Opposition
	Member	Riding & party	Riding & party		Member
	George Sharratt Pearson	Alberni-Nanaimo Liberal		Chilliwack Conservative	Leslie Harvey Eyres
	William James Asseltine	Atlin Liberal		Dewdney Conservative	Frank Porter Patterson
	Louis LeBourdais	Cariboo Liberal		Esquimalt Conservative	Elmer Victor Finland
	Thomas King	Columbia Liberal		The Islands Conservative	Macgregor Fullarton MacIntosh
	Frank Mitchell MacPherson	Cranbrook Liberal		Vancouver-Point Grey Conservative	Royal Lethington Maitland²
	Henry George Thomas Perry	Fort George Liberal		Vancouver-Point Grey Conservative	James Alexander Paton
	Robert Henry Carson	Kamloops Liberal		Victoria City Conservative	Herbert Anscomb
	Ezra Churchill Henniger	Grand Forks-Greenwood Liberal		Victoria City Conservative	Joseph Douglas Hunter
	Charles Sidney Leary	Kaslo-Slocan Liberal		Burnaby Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Ernest Edward Winch
	George Matheson Murray	Lillooet Liberal		Comox Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Colin Cameron
	John Melvin Bryan Sr.	Mackenzie Liberal		Cowichan-Newcastle Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Samuel Guthrie
	Frank Putnam	Nelson-Creston Liberal		Delta Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Leonard Alec Shepherd
	Arthur Wellesley Gray	New Westminster Liberal		North Vancouver Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Dorothy Gretchen Steeves
	Kenneth Cattanach MacDonald	North Okanagan Liberal		Vancouver East Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	James Lyle Telford
	Mark Matthew Connelly	Omineca Liberal		Vancouver East Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Harold Edward Winch
	Glen Everton Braden	Peace River Liberal		Fernie Labour (Party)	Thomas Aubert Uphill
	Thomas Dufferin Pattullo	Prince Rupert Liberal		Salmon Arm Independent	Rolf Wallgren Bruhn
	Harry Johnston	Revelstoke Liberal
	Richard Ronald Burns	Rossland-Trail Liberal
	Norman William Whittaker	Saanich Liberal
	Charles Herbert Percy Tupper	Similkameen Liberal
	Edward Tourtellotte Kennedy	Skeena Liberal
	Cecil Robert Bull	South Okanagan Liberal
	John Howard Forester	Vancouver-Burrard Liberal
	Helen Douglas Smith	Vancouver-Burrard Liberal
	Fred Crone	Vancouver Centre Liberal
	Gordon Sylvester Wismer	Vancouver Centre Liberal
	George Moir Weir	Vancouver-Point Grey Liberal
	John Hart ¹	Victoria City Liberal
	William Thomas Straith	Victoria City Liberal
	John Joseph Alban Gillis	Yale Liberal
	¹ Premier-Elect and Incumbent
	² Leader of the Opposition
Source: Elections BC