1986 British Columbia general election

1986 British Columbia general election
← outgoing members elected members →
69 seats of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia ; 35 seats were needed for a majority
Turnout	65.8% 4.7 pp 1,366,193 voted. (The number of votes recorded exceeds the number of voters who voted due to the block voting system in use in BC's multi-member constituencies.)
	Popular vote by riding. As this is an FPTP election, seat totals are not determined by popular vote, but instead via results by each riding. Click the map for more details.
Premier before election; Bill Vander Zalm; Social Credit	Premier after election ; Bill Vander Zalm; Social Credit

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.^[a]

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
Polling firm	Last day of survey	Source						ME	Sample
Election 1986	October 22, 1986		49.32	42.60	6.74	0.73	0.61
United Communications Research	October 1986	^[2]	48	30	6	4	—	3.64	725
United Communications Research	September 1986	^[2]	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 results
Party		Party leader	Candidates	Seats				Valid votes received
Party		Party leader	Candidates	1983	Dissol.	1986	Change	#	%	% Change
	Social Credit	Bill Vander Zalm	69	35	-	47	+12	954,516	49.32%	-0.44%
	New Democratic	Bob Skelly	69	22	-	22		824,544	42.60%	-2.34%
	Liberal	Art Lee	55	-	-	-	-	130,505	6.74%	+4.05%
	Progressive Conservative	Vacant^[b]	12	-	-	-	-	14,074	0.73%	-0.43%
	Green		9	-	-	-	-	4,660	0.24%	0.05%
	Independent		6	-	-	-	-	2,470	0.13%	-0.19%
	Libertas		1	-	-	-	-	1,552	0.08%	-
	People's Front		8	-	-	-	-	1,502	0.08%	-
	Communist		3	-	-	-	-	722	0.03%	-0.02%
	Libertarian		3	-	-	-	-	341	0.02%	-
	Western Canada Concept	Doug Christie	1	-	-	-	-	322	0.02%	-0.84%
	New Republic		1	-	-	-	-	245	0.01%	-
Total			237	57	57	69	+12	1,935,453	100	-
Total voters voting								1,366,193		-
Source: ^[3]

Popular vote

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

Seats summary

Social Credit			68.12%
NDP			31.88%

Notes and References

Notes

^ Block voting also perhaps makes the popular vote – the number of votes cast – not truly reflective of the sentiment of the voters since some voters cast two votes, and others cast only one.
^ Party leader Peter Pollen quit shortly before the election was called.

References

^ "B.C. Voter Participation: 1983 to 2013" (PDF). Elections BC. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 28, 2019. Retrieved May 11, 2017.
^ ^a ^b "NDP edges closer to Socreds in polls". The Ottawa Citizen. October 11, 1986. p. A13.
^ "Electoral History of British Columbia 1871-1986 Part One 34th General Election 1986". elections.bc.ca. Archived from the original on December 21, 2004.

External links

Elections BC 1986 Election

[2] Block voting also perhaps makes the popular vote – the number of votes cast – not truly reflective of the sentiment of the voters since some voters cast two votes, and others cast only one.

[4] Party leader Peter Pollen quit shortly before the election was called.

[1] "B.C. Voter Participation: 1983 to 2013" (PDF). Elections BC. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 28, 2019. Retrieved May 11, 2017.

[October1986-3] "NDP edges closer to Socreds in polls". The Ottawa Citizen. October 11, 1986. p. A13.

[5] "Electoral History of British Columbia 1871-1986 Part One 34th General Election 1986". elections.bc.ca. Archived from the original on December 21, 2004.

[1]

[a]

[2]

[b]

[3]

v t e Elections and referendums in British Columbia
General elections	1856 1860 1863 1866 1869 1871 1875 1878 1882 1886 1890 1894 1898 1900 1903 1907 1909 1912 1916 1920 1924 1928 1933 1937 1941 1945 1949 1952 1953 1956 1960 1963 1966 1969 1972 1975 1979 1983 1986 1991 1996 2001 2005 2009 2013 2017 2020 2024
Municipal elections	2005 2008 2011 2014 2018 2022
Referendums	1873 1909 1916 1920 1924 1937 1952 1972 1991 2002 2005 2009 2011 2018
See also: List of British Columbia by-elections