British Columbia general election, 1886

British Columbia general election, 1886

This was the fourth election held after British Columbia became a province of Canada on July 20 1871. The number of members was increased for this election from 25 to 27, and the number of ridings increased to 13.

Political Context

Issues and Debates

Non-Party System

There were to be no political parties in the new province. The designations "Government" and "Opposition" and "Independent" (and variations on these) functioned in place of parties, but they were very loose and do not represent formal coalitions, more alignments of support during the campaign. "Government" meant in support of the current Premier; "Opposition" meant campaigning against him, and often enough the Opposition would win and immediately become the Government.

The Smithe, A.E.B. Davie, Robson and T. Davie Governments

The election mandated the government of William Smithe who had assumed power from the failure of Robert Beaven's government in January 1883. In May 1887 Smithe died in office and Alexander Edmund Batson Davie assumed power, although due to his own illness he was unable to attend the opening of the Legislature. When Davie died in 1889 a further change of government saw newspaperman John Robson became Premier that year, receiving a mandate in the 1890 election only to die himself in 1892 of blood poisoning from a cut suffered from the door of a carriage. He was succeed by Theodore Davie, who was Premier going into the 1894 election

Byelections not shown

Any changes due to byelections are shown below the main table showing the theoretical composition of the House after the election. A final table showing the composition of the House at the dissolution of the Legislature at the end of this Parliament can be found below the byelections. The main table represents the immediate results of the election only, not changes in governing coalitions or eventual changes due to byelections.

List of ridings

The original ridings were thirteen in number, and Cowichan was restored to a two-member seat while New Westminster was increased to three, with the new total being 27 members. There were no political parties were not acceptable in the House by convention, though some members were openly partisan at the federal level (usually Conservative, although both Liberal and Labour allegiance were on display by some candidates).

These ridings were:

*Cariboo (three members)
*Cassiar
*Comox
*Cowichan (two members)
*Esquimalt (two members)
*Kootenay (two members)
*Lillooet (two members)
*Nanaimo
*New Westminster (three members)
*New Westminster City
*Victoria (two members)
*Victoria City (four members)
*Yale (three members)

Polling Conditions

Natives (First Nations) and Chinese were disallowed from voting, although naturalized Kanakas (Hawaiian colonists) and American and West Indian blacks and certain others participated. The requirement that knowledge of English be spoken for balloting was discussed but not applied.

Results by riding

-
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
align="center"|Robert McLeese
align="center" rowspan=2 |Cariboo
Government
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
Canadian politics/party colours/Independents|
align="center" |Cariboo
Opposition
align="center"|George Cowan
Canadian politics/party colours/Independents|
-
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
align="center"|Joseph Mason
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
Canadian politics/party colours/Opp|
align="center" |Cassiar
Opposition
align="center"|John Grant
Canadian politics/party colours/Opp|
-
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
align="center"|Henry Croft
align="center" rowspan=2 |Cowichan
Government
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
Canadian politics/party colours/Opp|
align="center" |Comox
Opposition
align="center"|Anthony Maitland Stenhouse
Canadian politics/party colours/Opp|
-
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
align="center"|William Smithe 1
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
Canadian politics/party colours/Opp|
align="center" rowspan=2 |New Westminster
Opposition
align="center"|William Henry Ladner
Canadian politics/party colours/Opp|
-
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
align="center"|David Williams Higgins
align="center" rowspan=2 |Esquimalt
Government
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
Canadian politics/party colours/Opp|
align="center"|James Orr
Canadian politics/party colours/Opp|
-
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
align="center"|Charles Edward Pooley
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
Canadian politics/party colours/Opp|
align="center" |New Westminster City
Opposition
align="center"|William Norman Bole
Canadian politics/party colours/Opp|
-
-
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
align="center"|James Baker
align="center" |Kootenay
Government
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
Canadian politics/party colours/Opp|
align="center" |Victoria City
Opposition
align="center"|Robert Beaven
Canadian politics/party colours/Opp|
-
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
align="center"|Edward Allen
align="center" rowspan=2 |Lillooet
Government
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
Canadian politics/party colours/Opp|
align="center" |Yale
Opposition
align="center"|Charles Augustus Semlin
Canadian politics/party colours/Opp|
-
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
align="center"|Alexander Edmund Batson Davie
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
-
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
align="center"|Robert Dunsmuir
align="center" rowspan=2 |Nanaimo
Government
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
-
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
align="center"|William Raybould
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
-
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
align="center"|John Robson
align="center" rowspan= |New Westminster
Government
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
-
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
align="center"|George William Anderson
align="center" rowspan=2 |Victoria
Government
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
-
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
align="center"|Robert Franklin John
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
-
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
align="center"|Theodore Davie
align="center" rowspan=3 |Victoria City
Government
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
-
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
align="center"|Edward Gawler Prior
Canadian politics/party colours/Opp|
-
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
align="center"|John Herbert Turner
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
-
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
align="center"|George Bohun Martin
align="center" rowspan=3 |Yale
Government
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
-
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
align="center"|Forbes George Vernon
Canadian politics/party colours/Gov|
-|
-|
align-left"|1 Premier-Elect and Incumbent Premier
-
align="center" colspan="10"|Source: [http://www.elections.bc.ca/elections/electoral_history/toc.html Elections BC]
-

See also

*List of British Columbia political parties

Further reading & references

*"In the Sea of Sterile Mountains: The Chinese in British Columbia", Joseph Morton, J.J. Douglas, Vancouver (1974). Despite its title, a fairly thorough account of the politicians and electoral politics in early BC.


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