1975 British Columbia general election

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates The 1975 British Columbia general election 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 governing New Democratic Party of Dave 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 Social Credit 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. The defeated social democratic NDP suffered only a marginal decrease in its vote share. However, NDP support outside Vancouver tailed off, resulting in a 20-seat loss. Barrett was one of the casualties; he was narrowly defeated by a Socred challenger (though he returned to the legislature a few months later in a by-election).

This was the last election until 2024 that the Conservative Party won a seat.

Results

Template:Canadian party colour

Summary of the 1975 Legislative Assembly of British Columbia election resultsTemplate:Election table/category

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
				1972	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change	Bill Bennett	55	10	35	+250%	635,482	49.25%	+18.09%	Dave Barrett	55	38	18	-52.6%	505,396	39.16%	-0.43%	Gordon Gibson	49	5	1	-80.0%	93,379	7.24%	-9.16%	George Scott Wallace	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:

Notes:

* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

x - less than 0.005% of the popular vote

Popular vote Social Credit   49.25% NDP   39.16% Liberal   7.24% PC   3.86% Others   0.49%

Seats summary Social Credit   63.64% NDP   32.73% Liberal   1.82% PC   1.82%

See also

• List of British Columbia political parties

Further reading

[[Category:General elections in British Columbia|Template:Title year]] [[Category:Template:Title year elections in Canada]] [[Category:Template:Title year in British Columbia|General election]]