Atlin (electoral district)

Template:Template other Atlin was a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It made its first appearance on the hustings in the 10th provincial general election in 1903 and last appeared in the 34th provincial general election in 1986, after which it was merged with the Skeena riding and was succeeded by Bulkley Valley-Stikine.

Political geography

Always one of the province's largest ridings by area, it was always among the smallest in population, and is often cited as an example of a lack of proper representation-by-population in the BC political system. From the perspective of riding residents, who are spread out in a handful of small settlements from the Nass River to the Yukon border, a riding incorporating larger population centres was unfair to them. Ultimately the pressure to redress lack of equality in voting-weight among BC ridings saw the Atlin riding being merged with Skeena riding.

Notable elections

Because of its small electorate, battles over spoiled ballots were critical in Atlin's electoral history:

• The 1928 election saw a 567/542/32 three-way split in favour of Herbert Frederick Kergin of the BC Liberal Party, with 22 rejected ballots
• The 1945 election saw a 297/292 split in favour of William Duncan Smith of the Liberal-Conservative Coalition, with no rejected ballots
• The 1949 election saw a 376/370 split in favour of Frank Calder, then a candidate for the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) - with 190 rejected ballots.
• The 1956 election saw a 450/360/131 split in favour of William James Asselstine of the Social Credit, with 59 rejected ballots.
• the 1979 election saw a 750/749 split in favour of Al Passarell of the New Democratic Party over Frank Calder, who had switched sides to Social Credit in the 1975 British Columbia general election - with 39 rejected ballots

First Nations

Another important factor in the Atlin riding was the dominance of its First Nations population, including the whole of the Nisga'a Nation (Frank Calder and Larry Guno were both Nisga'a). Also in the riding in its entirety was the Tahltan Nation, centred on the isolated towns of Telegraph Creek and Dease Lake. The area of the town of Atlin is part of the Inland Tlingit Nation.

Towns and industry

Another factor in the riding was the dominance of working men in its handful of industrial towns (principally mining).

The main towns in the riding were:

• Atlin
• Teslin
• Dease Lake
• Telegraph Creek
• Anyox (now a ghost town, formerly a large smelter town)
• Stewart

Notable MLAs

The most notable Member of the Legislative Assembly from Atlin was Frank Calder. A Nisga'a, he originally ran for the CCF, and then the NDP, but in the 1975 election he switched sides to Social Credit, but went down to defeat under that party's banner in 1979 and retired from electoral politics.

Electoral history

Note: Winners of each election are in bold.

Template:CANelecTemplate:CANelec

10th British Columbia election, 1903

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
Total valid votes			438	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%

Template:CANelecTemplate:CANelec

11th British Columbia election, 1907

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
Total valid votes			124	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%

Template:CANelecTemplate:CANelec

12th British Columbia election, 1909

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
Total valid votes			172	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%

Template:CANelec

13th British Columbia election, 1912

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
Total valid votes			-	--.--%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%

Template:CANelecTemplate:CANelec

14th British Columbia election, 1916

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
Total valid votes			606	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%

Template:CANelecTemplate:CANelecTemplate:CANelec

16th British Columbia election, 1924

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
Total valid votes			1,196	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%

Template:CANelecTemplate:CANelecTemplate:Canadian party colour

17th British Columbia election, 1928

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
Independent	William Herbert Moult	32	2.76%		unknown
Total valid votes			1,161	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			22
Turnout			%

Template:CANelecTemplate:CANelecTemplate:Canadian party colour

18th British Columbia election, 1933

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
Independent	Herbert Frederick Kergin	267	20.79%		unknown
Total valid votes			1,284	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			34
Turnout			%

Template:CANelecTemplate:Canadian party colour

19th British Columbia election, 1937

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
Co-operative Commonwealth	Charles H. Lake	263	25.53%		unknown
Total valid votes			1,030	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			31
Turnout			%

Template:CANelecTemplate:Canadian party colour

20th British Columbia election, 1941

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
Labour	John Scott	374	45.17%		unknown
Total valid votes			828	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			24
Turnout			%

Template:Canadian party colour

21st British Columbia election, 1945

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Norman Cunningham	292	49.58%
Total valid votes			589	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			0

Template:Canadian party colour

22nd British Columbia election, 1949

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Frank Arthur Calder	376	50.40%
Total valid votes			746	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			190
Turnout			%

Template:Canadian party colour

23rd British Columbia election, 19521
Party		Candidate	Votes 1st count	%	Votes final count	%	±%
Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Frank Arthur Calder	595	56.61%	595	56.61%		unknown	Progressive Conservative	Thomas Sutherland MacKay	164	15.60%	164	15.60%		unknown		unknown
Total valid votes			1,051	100.00%	1,051	%
Total rejected ballots			44
Turnout			%
1 preferential ballot - only 1 count needed

Template:CANelecTemplate:Canadian party colour

24th British Columbia election, 1953 2
Party		Candidate	Votes 1st count	%	Votes final count	%	±%
Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Frank Arthur Calder	553	59.08%	553	59.08%		unknown		unknown
Total valid votes			936	100.00%	936	%
Total rejected ballots			125
Total Registered Voters			5,933 (1952 list)
Turnout			%
Preferential ballot; only one count needed

Template:CANelecTemplate:Canadian party colour

25th British Columbia election, 1956

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Frank Arthur Calder	360	38.10%		unknown
Total valid votes			945	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			59
Turnout			%

Template:CANelecTemplate:CANelecTemplate:Canadian party colour

26th British Columbia election, 1960

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Frank Arthur Calder	444	53.30%		unknown
Total valid votes			833	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			85
Turnout			%

Template:CANelecTemplate:CANelecTemplate:CANelec

27th British Columbia election, 1963

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
Total valid votes			1,008	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			19
Turnout			%

Template:CANelecTemplate:CANelecTemplate:CANelec

28th British Columbia election, 1966

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
Total valid votes			958	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			10
Turnout			%

Template:CANelecTemplate:CANelecTemplate:CANelec

29th British Columbia election, 1969

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
Total valid votes			1,203	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			13
Turnout			%

Template:CANelecTemplate:CANelecTemplate:Canadian party colour

30th British Columbia election, 1972

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
Progressive Conservative	Glen Leslie Clayton	65	3.95%		unknown	Independent	Peter John Curran	242	14.69%		unknown
Total valid votes			1,467	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			27
Turnout			%

Template:CANelecTemplate:CANelecTemplate:CANelec

31st British Columbia election, 1975

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
Total valid votes			1,773	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			22
Turnout			%

Template:CANelecTemplate:CANelec

32nd British Columbia election, 1979

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
Total valid votes			1,499	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			39
Turnout			%

Template:CANelecTemplate:Canadian party colour

33rd British Columbia election, 1983

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
Independent	Paul Danny Brohman	84	2.82%		unknown	Independent	Burgess A. Longson	105	3.52%		unknown
Total valid votes			2,984	70.76%
Total rejected ballots			393
Turnout			%

Template:CANelecTemplate:CANelec

34th British Columbia election, 1986

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
Total valid votes			2,301	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			31
Turnout			%