1952 British Columbia general election

The 1952 British Columbia general election was the 23rd general election in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It was held to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, alongside a plebiscite on daylight saving time and liquor. The election was called on April 10, 1952, and held on June 12, 1952. The new legislature met for the first time on February 3, 1953. It was the first general election to use a preferential ballot, a short-lived phenomenon in BC. The presence of multi-member districts such as Victoria City with 3 MLAs in conjunction with the Alternative voting system called for an innovation where the district's slate of candidates was split into three "ballots," each with one candidate from each party.[3]

1952 British Columbia general election

June 12, 1952
48 seats of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia 25 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   SC CCF Leader Rev. Ernest George Hansell[1] Harold Winch Party Social Credit Co-operative Commonwealth Leader since 1938 Leader's seat Vancouver East Last election 0 7 Seats won 19 18 Seat change 19 11 First count 209,049 236,562   Percentage 27.20% 30.78%   Swing 25.99pp 4.32pp Final count 203,932 231,756   Percentage 30.18% 34.3%   Third party Fourth party   PC Leader Byron Ingemar Johnson Herbert Anscomb Party Liberal Progressive Conservative Leader since 1947 1946 Leader's seat New Westminster (lost re-election) Oak Bay (lost re-election) Last election 39[2] 39[2] Seats won 6 4 Seat change n/a[2] n/a[2] First count 180,289 129,439   Percentage 23.46% 16.84%   Swing n/a[2] n/a[2] Final count 170,674 65,285   Percentage 25.26% 9.66%
Premier before election Byron Ingemar Johnson Coalition Premier after election W. A. C. Bennett[1] Social Credit

This system had been designed to enable the governing Liberal / Progressive Conservative coalition (the Conservatives had recently changed their name to match that of their federal cousins) to keep the socialist Co-operative Commonwealth Federation out of power. As an added measure to lock out the CCF, the coalition devised an elimination ballot system. While they ran candidates under their own names, the Liberals and Tories believed that if Liberal voters picked a Tory on their second preference and vice versa, the two parties would gain enough votes between them to stay in power.

However, the coalition did not consider what CCF voters would do with their second preferences. Those votes flowed overwhelmingly to the British Columbia Social Credit League (BCSCL). Combined with second preference votes from the Liberals and Conservatives, this was enough to vault Social Credit to 19 seats, one more than the CCF. Meanwhile, the coalition was decimated, winning only 10 seats between them. Both Premier Byron "Boss" Johnson and Tory leader Herbert Anscomb lost their seats.

Not even the Socreds had expected to win the election. The party had no official leader, though Alberta Social Credit Member of Parliament Rev. Ernest George Hansell led the party during the election campaign without contesting a seat. The Socreds persuaded Tom Uphill, a Labour member of the Legislature (MLA), to support the party, and so the Socreds were able to form a minority government.

The party's next task was to elect a leader who would become the province's new premier. In a vote of the newly elected caucus, W.A.C. Bennett, a former Conservative MLA who joined the Socreds after losing a bid for the Tory leadership, won a caucus vote and became premier-elect on July 15, 1952. This began what would be 21 years–and 36 of the next 39 years–of Social Credit government in British Columbia.

In hopes of getting a stronger mandate, Bennett deliberately lost a confidence vote, forcing fresh elections in June 1953 at which Social Credit won a majority in its own right.