British Columbia general election, 1972
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The 30th general election for the Canadian province of British Columbia was held to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. The election was called on July 24, 1972, and held on August 30, 1972. The new legislature met for the first time on October 17, 1972.
David Barrett led the social democratic New Democratic Party to victory, winning a majority government.
The Social Credit Party, led by Premier W.A.C. Bennett, was defeated after governing British Columbia since the 1952 election. Social Credit's share of the popular vote fell by over 15 percentage points, and the party lost 28 of the seats it had won in the previous election.
The Liberal Party held onto its five seats, while the Progressive Conservative Party, under the leadership of Derrill Warren, returned to the legislature for the first time since the 1953 election by winning two seats.
In four ridings and part of a fifth, a referendum was held concurrently with the election.
[edit] Results
| Party | Party leader | # of candidates |
Seats | Popular vote | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 | Elected | % Change | # | % | % Change | ||||
| New Democrats | Dave Barrett | 55 | 12 | 38 | +217% | 448,260 | 39.59% | +5.67% | |
| Social Credit | W.A.C. Bennett | 55 | 38 | 10 | -73.7% | 352,776 | 31.16% | -15.63% | |
| Liberal | David Anderson | 53 | 5 | 5 | - | 185,640 | 16.40% | -2.63% | |
| Progressive Conservative | Derril Thomas Warren | 49 | - | 2 | - | 143,450 | 12.67% | +12.56% | |
| Independent | 9 | - | - | - | 1,184 | 0.10% | +0.02% | ||
| Communist | 5 | - | - | - | 862 | 0.08% | +0.03% | ||
| Total | 226 | 55 | 55 | - | 1,132,172 | 100% | |||
| Source: Elections BC | |||||||||
[edit] See also
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