Greenwood (provincial electoral district)

For the defunct Ontario federal electoral district, see Greenwood (electoral district). For the defunct Ontario provincial electoral district, see Greenwood (Ontario electoral district).

Greenwood was the name of a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It was located in the Boundary Country west of Grand Forks around the city of Greenwood. It first appeared on the hustings in the large redistribution prior to the 1903 election. For the 1924 election it was merged with the Grand Forks riding to form Grand Forks-Greenwood.

For other historical and current provincial electoral districts in the Kootenay region, please see Kootenay (electoral districts).

Political Geography and History

When the Greenwood riding was formed the Boundary and Slocan mining districts were booming and Greenwood was not a city in name only (as it is today, proudly retaining the city status as official vestige of its wealthy past). Like other ridings in the West Kootenay created in advance of the 1903 election out of the West Kootenay (south riding), during the glory days of the Kootenay and Boundary silver and galena booms. Slocan, Kaslo, Rossland, Grand Forks, Nelson City, Ymir and other ridings were also created at this time out of the former West Kootenay (south riding)).

The need for extra ridings ended when the mining era did, and so as the population of Greenwood and neighbouring towns dwindled the Greenwood riding made its last appearance in the 1924 election and was merged with Grand Forks riding into Grand Forks-Greenwood.

Grand Forks-Greenwood remained on the hustings until 1966 when even lower populations resulted in a merger with the valley of the Similkameen river, also a mining district in decline and represented by Similkameen, which was combined with the smelter and railway towns of the Grand Forks-Greenwood area and the southern end of the Okanagana to form the new riding of Boundary-Similkameen.

For other historical and current electoral districts in the West Kootenay region, please see Kootenay (electoral districts).

Demographics

Population, 1901
Population change, 1901–1921	Population Grand Forks-Greenwood 1926-1966	Population Boundary-Similkameen 1966-1986
Area (km²)
Population density (people per km²)

Notable MLAs

Bill Barlee, BC historian, TV host and folk pundit (ret.)

Electoral history

Note: Winners in each election are in bold.

10th British Columbia election, 1903
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	John Robert Brown ¹	238	36.73%		unknown
	Socialist	Robert Low Drury	229	35.34%	–	unknown
	Conservative	James Ernest Spankie	181	27.93%		unknown
Total valid votes			648	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%
The Vancouver Province newspaper gave 380, 332, and 265 respectively.

11th British Columbia election, 1907
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Socialist	Edgar William Dynes	176	30.19%	–	unknown
	Liberal	George Ratcliffe Naden	217	37.22%		unknown
	Conservative	Edward George Warren	190	32.59%		unknown
Total valid votes			583	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%
⁸ Sixteenth Premier of British Columbia.

12th British Columbia election, 1909
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Socialist	George Heatherton	204	33.01%	–	unknown
	Conservative	John Robert Jackson	260	42.07%		unknown
	Liberal	Alexander MacDonald	154	24.92%		unknown
Total valid votes			618	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%

13th British Columbia election, 1912
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Socialist	George Heatherton	102	21.89%	–	unknown
	Conservative	John Robert Jackson	364	78.11%		unknown
Total valid votes			466	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%

14th British Columbia election, 1916
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Conservative	John Robert Jackson	205	29.45%		unknown
	Liberal	John Duncan MacLean	491	70.55%		unknown
Total valid votes			696	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%

British Columbia general election, 1920
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	John Duncan MacLean	392	49.06%
	Conservative	George Bell	292	36.55%
	Independent Farmer	George Henry Pitman	115	14.39%
Total valid votes			799	100.00%

Sources

Elections BC Historical Returns