2013 British Columbia General Election

The 2013 British Columbia general election took place on May 14, 2013, to elect the 85 members of the 40th Parliament of British Columbia to the Legislative Assembly in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The British Columbia Liberal Party (BC Liberals) formed the government during the 39th Parliament prior to this general election, initially under the leadership of Premier Gordon Campbell then after his resignation, Christy Clark. The British Columbia New Democratic Party (BC NDP) under the leadership of Carole James, and then Adrian Dix, formed the Official Opposition. The BC Green Party under the leadership of Jane Sterk and the BC Conservative Party under John Cummins were also included in polling, although neither party had representation at the end of the 39th Parliament.

The Liberal Party won its fourth straight majority; Clark was defeated in her riding, but she was re-elected to the legislature in a subsequent by-election in Westside-Kelowna on July 10, 2013, after Liberal MLA Ben Stewart stepped down on her behalf. The NDP remained the official opposition, losing two seats, and the Green Party won its first seat.

Despite their victory, the Liberals had been consistently several points behind the opposition New Democrats in every public opinion poll throughout the campaign. Even poll results released on the last day of the campaign suggested that the New Democrats had an eight to nine percentage point margin over the Liberals."Why were the polls completely wrong about the B.C. election?"
. ''The Globe and Mail'', May 15, 2013. Only one pollster, Forum Research, had released a poll which suggested that the Liberals were close enough that a victory was even possible for them, although even that poll had the New Democrats ahead by two percentage points. The Liberals' upset victory led to significant media debate about the quality of opinion polling in Canadian elections.

Timing

Section 23 of British Columbia's ''Constitution Act'' provides that general elections occur on the second Tuesday in May of the fourth calendar year after the last election.Constitution Act, s. 23
. As an election was held on May 12, 2009, the next election was scheduled for May 14, 2013. The same section, though, makes the fixed election date subject to the Lieutenant Governor's right to dissolve the Legislative Assembly as he or she sees fit.

The writs were dropped April 16, 2013, and the general election was held on May 14, 2013, with advance voting made available on May 8 through 11.

Background

After leading the BC Liberals for 17 years, Gordon Campbell announced he would resign as Premier and party leader in November 2010. This was seen as the result of opposition to the Harmonized Sales Tax, which was very unpopular with voters.

In the ensuing leadership campaign, Christy Clark, the eventual winner, suggested she would prefer to hold an election earlier than 2013 to secure her own mandate. She was believed to be preparing her party for an election as early as autumn 2011. However, due to the unfavourable result from the HST referendum, she decided to rule out an early election.

Political parties

This is a list of political parties who ran candidates in the 2013 election:

Results

!rowspan="2" colspan="2" style="text-align: center;", Party
!rowspan="2" style="text-align: center;", Party leader
!rowspan="2" style="text-align: center;", Candidates
!colspan="5" style="text-align: center;", Seats
!colspan="3" style="text-align: center;", Popular vote
, -
, style="text-align: center;", 2009
, style="text-align: center;", Dissolution
, style="text-align: center;", Elected
, style="text-align: center;", % change
, style="text-align: center;", Seats %
, style="text-align: center;", #
, style="text-align: center;", %
, style="text-align: center;", Change ( pp)

, style="text-align: left;", Christy Clark
, 85 , , 49 , , 45 , , 49 , , +8.89 , , 57.6, , 794,946 , , 44.14 , , −1.68

, style="text-align: left;", Adrian Dix
, 85 , , 35 , , 36 , , 34 , , −5.56 , , 40.0, , 715,999 , , 39.71 , , −2.44

, style="text-align: left;", Jane Sterk
, 61 , , — , , — , , 1 , , * , , 1.2, , 146,607 , , 8.13 , , −0.08

, colspan="2" style="text-align: left;", Independent
, 35 , , 1 , , 4 , , 1 , , −75.0 , , 1.2, , 42,565 , , 2.36 , , +1.31

, style="text-align: left;", John Cummins
, 56 , , — , , — , , — , , — , , —, , 85,783 , , 4.76 , , +2.66

, colspan="2" style="text-align: left;", No Affiliation
, 11 , , — , , — , , — , , — , , —, , 6,751 , , 0.37 , , +0.28

, style="text-align: left;", ''vacant''
, 8 , , — , , — , , — , , — , , —, , 2,049 , , 0.11 , , +0.02

, style="text-align: left;", Salvatore Vetro
, 2 , , * , , — , , — , , — , , —, , 1,271 , , 0.07 , , *

, style="text-align: left;", Michael Halliday
, 6 , , * , , — , , — , , — , , —, , 995 , , 0.06 , , *

, style="text-align: left;", Jagmohan Bhandari
, 4 , , * , , — , , — , , — , , —, , 878 , , 0.05 , , *

, style="text-align: left;", Wilfred Hanni
, 2 , , * , , — , , — , , — , , —, , 828 , , 0.05 , , *

, style="text-align: left;", Marc Emery
, 2 , , — , , — , , — , , — , , —, , 766 , , 0.04 , , +0.02

, style="text-align: left;", James Filippelli
, 2 , , — , , — , , — , , — , , —, , 528 , , 0.03 , , +0.01

, style="text-align: left;", ''vacant''
, 3 , , * , , — , , — , , — , , —, , 445 , , 0.02 , , *

, style="text-align: left;", Samuel Hammond
, 4 , , — , , — , , — , , — , , —, , 388 , , 0.02 , , −0.01

, style="text-align: left;", ''vacant''
, 1 , , * , , — , , — , , — , , —, , 384 , , 0.02 , , *

, style="text-align: left;", Alan Saldanha
, 1 , , * , , — , , — , , — , , —, , 282 , , 0.02 , , *

, style="text-align: left;", Michael Donovan
, 2 , , * , , — , , — , , — , , —, , 248 , , 0.01 , , *

, style="text-align: left;", Conrad Schmidt
, 2 , , — , , — , , — , , — , , —, , 145 , , 0.01 , , −0.01

, style="text-align: left;", Michael Yawney
, 2 , , * , , — , , — , , — , , —, , 137 , , 0.01 , , *

, style="text-align: left;", Espavo Sozo
, 2 , , * , , — , , — , , — , , — , , 56 , , 0.00 , , *
, -
!colspan="3" style="text-align: center;" , Total
!376 !!85 !!85 !!85 !!— !!100.0 !!1,803,051 !!100.00

Voter turnout

Voter turnout was 57.1%, but varied from riding to riding. 10 of the 85 ridings had less than 50% voter turnout. Richmond and Kelowna were the only major cities with under 50% turnout.

File:VoterTurnout2.svg, Voting Turnout in the BC 2013 General Election

Retiring incumbents

;Liberals
* George Abbott, Shuswap
* Bill Barisoff, Penticton
* Pat Bell, Prince George-Mackenzie
* Harry Bloy, Burnaby-Lougheed
* Ron Cantelon, Parksville-Qualicum
* Murray Coell, Saanich North and the Islands
* Kevin Falcon, Surrey-Cloverdale
*Colin Hansen, Vancouver-Quilchena
* Randy Hawes, Abbotsford-Mission
* Dave Hayer, Surrey-Tynehead
* Kash Heed, Vancouver-Fraserview
* Rob Howard, Richmond Centre
* Kevin Krueger, Kamloops-South Thompson
* Blair Lekstrom, Peace River South
* John Les, Chilliwack
* Joan McIntyre, West Vancouver-Sea to Sky
* Mary McNeil

;New Democrats
* Dawn Black, New Westminster
* Gary Coons, North Coast
* Guy Gentner, Delta North
* Michael Sather, Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows
* Diane Thorne, Coquitlam-Maillardville

;Independents
* John Slater, Boundary-Similkameen

Opinion polls

File:BC provincial polling during the 2013 campaign.png, Voting intentions leading up to the 2013 election
File:BC provincial polling since the 2009 election.png, Voting intentions since the 2009 election

Candidates

The following is a list of candidates, as shown on the list of candidates that have officially registered as noted by Elections BC'
List of Standing Nominees
for more details.
*Names in bold indicate party leaders and cabinet ministers.
*The victorious Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for each district has a coloured bar to the left of his or her name.
*Incumbents who did not seek re-election are denoted by †
*Conservative candidates who are listed as "non-affiliated" are denoted by ‡

Northern British Columbia

, -
, style="background:whitesmoke;", Nechako Lakes
, ,
, John Rustad
5,324 – 53.79%
,
, Sussanne Skidmore-Hewlett
2,737 – 27.65%
,
, Colin Hamm
510 – 5.15%
,
, Dan Brooks
1,253 – 12.66%
,
, Beverly Bird (Advocational)
74 – 0.75%
, ,
, John Rustad
, -
, style="background:whitesmoke;", North Coast
,
, Judy Fraser
2,692 – 33.07%
, ,
, Jennifer Rice
4,617 – 56.72%
,
, Hondo Arendt
821 – 10.21%
,
,
,
,
, ,
, Gary Coons†
, -
, style="background:whitesmoke;", Peace River North
, ,
, Pat Pimm
7,905 – 58.94%
,
, Judy Fox-McGuire
1,319 – 9.84%
,
,
,
, Wyeth Sigurdson
900 – 6.71%
,
, Arthur Hadland (Ind.)
3,287 – 24.51%
, ,
, Pat Pimm
, -
, style="background:whitesmoke;", Peace River South
, ,
, Mike Bernier
4,373 – 46.73%
,
, Darwin Wren
1,988 – 21.24%
,
,
,
, Kurt Peats
2,546 – 27.21%
,
, Tyrel Pohl (Ind.)
451 – 4.84%
, ,
, Blair Lekstrom†
, -
, style="background:whitesmoke;", Prince George-Mackenzie
, ,
, Mike Morris
10,689 – 55.19%
,
, Bobby Deepak
6,725 – 34.73%
,
, Karen McDowell
1,094 – 5.65%
,
, Terry Rysz
858 – 4.43%
,
,
, ,
, Pat Bell†
, -
, style="background:whitesmoke;", Prince George-Valemount
, ,
, Shirley Bond
11,291 – 56.95%
,
, Sherry Ogasawara
7,116 – 35.89%
,
,
,
, Nathan Giede
1,105 – 5.57%
,
, Donald Roberts (Christian)
314 – 1.58%
, ,
, Shirley Bond
, -
, style="background:whitesmoke;", Skeena
,
, Carol Leclerc
5,087 – 43.27%
, ,
, Robin Austin
5,609 – 47.71%
,
,
,
, Mike Brousseau
797 – 6.78%
,
, Trevor Hendry (BC Party)
263 – 2.24%
, ,
, Robin Austin
, -
, style="background:whitesmoke;", Stikine
,
, Sharon Hartwell
3,167 – 36.61%
, ,
, Doug Donaldson
4,074 – 47.10%
,
, Roger Benham
303 – 3.50%
,
, Jonathan Dieleman
533 – 6.16%
,
, Rod Taylor (Christian)
514- 5.94%
Jesse O'Leary (Ind.)
59 – 0.68%
, ,
, Doug Donaldson
, -

Kootenays

, -
, style="background:whitesmoke;", Columbia River-Revelstoke
,
, Doug Clovechok