1986 British Columbia general election

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates The 1986 British Columbia general election was the 34th general election in the Province of British Columbia, Canada. It was held to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. The sitting Social Credit government was re-elected.

The election was called on September 24, 1986. The election was held on October 22, 1986, and the new legislature met for the first time on March 9, 1987.

The governing British Columbia Social Credit Party (Socreds) had seen a leadership change just months before the election, with Bill Bennett standing down in favour of Bill Vander Zalm. Promising a fresh start after the Bennett years, Vander Zalm led the Socreds to a fourth consecutive majority government, although with winning less than half of the popular vote. 12 new seats had been created in the legislature for this election. Social Credit coincidentally won 12 additional seats, while the social democratic New Democratic Party, led by Bob Skelly, won the same number it had in the previous election. No other parties won seats. In fact the two leading parties together - SC and NDP - took more than 90 percent of the votes.

In addition to 35 single member districts, there were 17 two-member constituencies in this election. Voters in these places were allowed two votes (Block Voting), and generally used them both on the same party, with the largest group (even if not a majority) taking both seats.

Only one district elected both a SC and a NDP MLA. This was Vancouver-Point Grey where two women, an NDP member and a Socred (Kim Campbell, later a Canadian prime minister), were elected.

All other districts elected either two Socreds (12 districts) or two NDP members (four districts), with no representation given to the minority vote in the district. That helped ensure the government's capture of the most seats.Template:Efn

It was the last election to be held with multi-member districts since BC moved to all single-member districts prior to the next election.

Opinion polls

Evolution of voting intentions at provincial level

Polling firm	Last day of survey	Source	BCSC	BCNDP	BCLP	PCBC	Other	ME	Sample
			style="background:Template:Canadian party colour;" data-sort-type="number"|	style="background:Template:Canadian party colour;" data-sort-type="number"|	style="background:Template:Canadian party colour;" data-sort-type="number"|	style="background:Template:Canadian party colour;" data-sort-type="number"|	style="background:Template:Canadian party colour;" data-sort-type="number"|
Election 1986	October 22, 1986		49.32	42.60	6.74	0.73	0.61
United Communications Research	October 1986		48	30	6	4	—	3.64	725
United Communications Research	September 1986		50	29	6	3	—	—	—
Election 1983	May 5, 1983		49.76	44.94	2.69	1.16	1.45

Results

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

Party		Party leader	Candidates	Seats				Valid votes received
				1983	Dissol.	1986	Change	#	%	% Change	Bill Vander Zalm	69	35	-	47	Template:Fluc	954,516	49.32%	-0.44%	Bob Skelly	69	22	-	22	Steady	824,544	42.60%	-2.34%	Art Lee	55	-	-	-	-	130,505	6.74%	+4.05%	VacantTemplate:Efn	12	-	-	-	-	14,074	0.73%	-0.43%		9	-	-	-	-	4,660	0.24%	0.05%	Independent		6	-	-	-	-	2,470	0.13%	-0.19%	Libertas		1	-	-	-	-	1,552	0.08%	-		8	-	-	-	-	1,502	0.08%	-		3	-	-	-	-	722	0.03%	-0.02%		3	-	-	-	-	341	0.02%	-	Doug Christie	1	-	-	-	-	322	0.02%	-0.84%		1	-	-	-	-	245	0.01%	-
Total			237	57	57	69	Template:Fluc	1,935,453	100	-
Total voters voting								1,366,193		-
Source:

Popular vote Social Credit   49.32% NDP   42.60% Liberal   6.74% Others   1.34%

Seats summary Social Credit   68.12% NDP   31.88%

See also

• List of British Columbia political parties

External links

• Elections BC 1986 Election

[[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]]