Burnaby—Seymour

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Burnaby—Seymour was a federal electoral district in the province of British Columbia, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1968 to 1979.

This riding was created in 1966 from parts of Burnaby—Coquitlam, Burnaby—Richmond and Coast—Capilano ridings. The riding originally consisted of the eastern part of North Vancouver plus areas of Burnaby north of the Grandview Highway and Edmonds Avenue, west of Sperling and north of Pandora Street. That is, North Vancouver east of Lynn Creek plus the Burnaby Heights, Capitol Hill, Brentwood and Deer Lake neighbourhoods of Burnaby.

The riding's first election, in 1968, is notable for being a showdown between the former leader of the British Columbia Liberal Party, Ray Perrault, and federal New Democratic Party leader Tommy Douglas. Given that the North Shore portions of the riding were largely affluent and upper middle class in character and normally a Liberal bastion, Douglas' strong showing is not so surprising given the working-class and labour background of much of even the better-off parts of the riding in Burnaby.

When this riding was redistributed in 1976, the resulting Burnaby riding consistently returned NDP candidates - this was Svend Robinson's longtime seat. North Vancouver—Burnaby returned a Progressive Conservative member (Chuck Cook) since its creation until it was abolished in 1987, as did its successor riding, the seat of North Vancouver until Reform Party member Ted White took over the seat on Cook's retirement.

In provincial politics, the equivalent area of North Vancouver was among the last holdouts of the provincial Liberal Party prior to it losing its support base to the Social Credit Party in the early 1980s. Jim Nielsen, who first ran for the Liberals in Burnaby-Seymour in 1974, was later a provincial Social Credit cabinet minister.

[edit] Election results

Canadian federal election, 1968
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Ray Perrault	17,891	45.23%		unknown
	New Democratic Party	Tommy C. Douglas	17,753	44.89%		unknown
	Progressive Conservative	Charles MacLean	3,206	8.11%		unknown
	Social Credit	Ron Price	702	1.77%		unknown
Total valid votes			39,552	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			unknown
Turnout

Canadian federal election, 1972
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic Party	Ed Nelson	18,274	37.79%		unknown
	Liberal	Ray Perrault	17,985	37.19%		unknown
	Progressive Conservative	John Ratel	11,119	22.99%		unknown
	Social Credit	John B. MacDonald	694	2.91%		unknown
	Independent	Bob Thompson	133	00.28%		unknown
	Unknown	Eric Waugh	120	0.25%		unknown
	Unknown	Lorette Glasheen	36	0.07%		unknown
Total valid votes			48,361	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			unknown	unknown
Turnout

Canadian federal election, 1974
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Mark Raines	18,063	36.58%		unknown
	Progressive Conservative	Jim Nielsen ¹	17,574	35.59%		unknown
	New Democratic Party	Ed Nelson	13,472	27.28%		unknown
	Communist	Eric Waugh	167	0.34%		unknown
	Marxist-Leninist	Jack Maley	60	0.12%		unknown
	Unknown	André Doucet	42	0.09%		unknown
Total valid votes			49,378	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			unknown	unknown
Turnout
¹ Later a cabinet minister in the provincial Social Credit government of Premier William Richards Bennett.