British Columbia general election, 1975

The British Columbia general election of 1975 was the 31st 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 November 3, 1975, and held on December 11, 1975. The new legislature met for the first time on March 17, 1976.

The governining New Democratic Party of David Barrett was defeated after three years in government. Bill Bennett, son of long-time Social Credit Party leader and BC premier, W.A.C. Bennett, led the conservative party back to power, winning close to half of the popular vote, and a solid majority in the legislature.

Voters abandoned the Liberal and Progressive Conservative parties as the centre and right-wing vote coalesced around Social Credit to defeat the social democratic NDP.

Results

Party		Party Leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular Vote
Party		Party Leader	# of candidates	1972	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change
	Social Credit	Bill Bennett	55	10	35	+250%	635,482	49.25%	+18.09%
	New Democratic	Dave Barrett	55	38	18	-52.6%	505,396	39.16%	-0.43%
	Liberal	Gordon Gibson	49	5	1	-80.0%	93,379	7.24%	-9.16%
	Progressive Conservative		29	2	1	-50.0%	49,796	3.86%	-8.81%
	Independent		12	-	-	-	4,688	0.36%	+0.26%
	Communist		13	-	-	-	1,441	0.11%	+0.03%
	North American Labour		4	*	-	*	141	0.01%	*
	Revolutionary Marxist Group		3	*	-	*	94	0.01%	*
	League for Socialist Action		1	*	-	*	34	x	*
Total			221	55	55	-	1,290,451	100%
Source: Elections BC

Notes:

* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

x – less than 0.005% of the popular vote

British Columbia general election, 1975

Results

See also