1956 British Columbia general election

The 1956 British Columbia general election was the 25th general election in the province of British Columbia, Canada. It was held to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. The election was called on August 13, 1956, and held on September 19, 1956. The new legislature met for the first time on February 7, 1957.

The conservative Social Credit of Premier W.A.C. Bennett was re-elected with a majority in the legislature to a third term in government with over 45% of the popular vote.

The social democratic CCF formed the official opposition.

The British Columbia Liberal Party lost two of its four seats despite winning over 20% of the popular vote.

The Progressive Conservative Party lost its single seat in the legislature, and would not win a seat again until the 1972 election.

One seat was won by a Labour candidate, Tom Uphill of Fernie.

Changes to election laws In 1953, as part of a revision to the Provincial Elections Act, the voting age was reduced from 21 to 19. As well, the instant runoff voting system that was in effect for the 1952 and 1953 elections was abolished, and the previous system—mixture of block voting in multi-member districts and single-winner first past the post—was revived.

In 1955, a further Act was passed that increased the Legislative from 48 members to 52 through the following changes:

Peace River was split into North Peace River and South Peace River Burnaby, Delta and North Vancouver became multi-member districts, each now returning two members.

Results

|style="text-align:left;" |W.A.C. Bennett | 52 || 28 || 39 || 11 || 374,711 || 99,940 || 45.84 || 8.09

|style="text-align:left;" |Bob Strachan | 51 || 14 || 10 || 4 || 231,511 || 6,998 || 28.32 || 2.53

|style="text-align:left;" |Arthur Laing | 52 || 4 || 2 || 2 || 177,922 || 6,161 || 21.77 || 1.82

|style="text-align:left;" |Deane Finlayson | 22 || 1 || – || 1 || 25,373 || 15,407 || 3.11 || 2.49

|style="text-align:left;" |Tom Uphill | 1 || 1 || 1 || || 1,321 || 280 || 0.16 || 0.06

|style="text-align:left;" | | 14 || – || – || – || 3,381 || 4,115 || 0.41 || 0.62

| || 7 || – || – || – || 3,178 || 1,207 || 0.39 || 0.12 |- ! colspan="3" style="text-align:left;" | Total | 199 | 48 ! colspan="2"| 52 ! colspan="2"|817,397 ! colspan="2"| 100.00% |- | colspan="7" style="text-align:left;" | Rejected ballots | 6,642 ||37,124 | colspan="2"| |- | colspan="7" style="text-align:left;" | Actual voters who voted | 509,409 ||12,643 | 65.43% || 5.12 |- | colspan="7" style="text-align:left;" | Registered voters | 778,587 ||38,581 | colspan="2"|

+ Seats and popular vote by party Party Seats Votes Change (pp)

MLAs elected

Single-member districts

Multi-member districts

Synopsis of results + Results by riding - 1956 British Columbia general election (single-member districts) Riding Winning party VotesName 1953Party Votes Share Margin#Margin% CCF Lib PC Total Alberni CCF CCF 3,362 50.60% 1,468 22.09% 1,894 3,362 1,388 – – – 6,644 Atlin CCF SC 454 48.04% 94 9.94% 454 360 131 – – – 945 Cariboo SC SC 3,014 60.86% 1,873 37.82% 3,014 797 1,141 – – – 4,952 Chilliwack SC SC 9,008 57.10% 5,890 37.34% 9,008 2,992 3,118 658 – – 15,776 Columbia SC SC 1,074 54.41% 422 21.38% 1,074 248 652 – – – 1,974 Comox CCF SC 4,916 41.63% 361 3.06% 4,916 4,555 2,339 – – – 11,810 Cowichan-Newcastle CCF CCF 5,015 51.18% 1,842 18.80% 3,173 5,015 1,611 – – – 9,799 Cranbrook CCF CCF 3,321 53.26% 1,309 20.99% 2,012 3,321 902 – – – 6,235 Dewdney SC SC 10,267 47.49% 3,056 14.14% 10,267 7,211 4,141 – – – 21,619 Esquimalt SC SC 3,530 43.70% 1,517 18.78% 3,530 2,013 1,714 821 – – 8,078 Fernie Lab Lab 1,321 42.43% 140 4.49% 1,181 – 611 – – 1,321 3,113 Fort George SC SC 3,774 58.48% 2,398 37.16% 3,774 1,304 1,376 – – – 6,454 Grand Forks-Greenwood CCF CCF 877 42.57% 11 0.53% 866 877Lois Haggen accepted the nomination after her husband Rupert Haggen chose to retire because of health problems. 317 – – – 2,060 Kamloops SC SC 4,948 61.02% 2,931 36.15% 4,948 1,144 2,017 – – – 8,109 Kaslo-Slocan CCF CCF 1,512 54.31% 537 19.29% 975 1,512 297 – – – 2,784 Lillooet Lib SC 2,055 52.41% 1,096 27.95% 2,055 907 959 – – – 3,921 Mackenzie CCF CCF 4,502 48.41% 1,256 13.50% 3,246 4,502 1,362 189 – – 9,299 Nanaimo and the Islands PC SC 3,827 45.52% 864 12.60% 3,827 2,963 2,142 – – 69 9,001 Nelson-Creston SC SC 4,190 51.02% 1,859 22.64% 4,190 2,331 1,622 – 70 – 8,213 New Westminster CCF CCF 4,469 38.83% 293 2.55% 4,176 4,469 2,220 – – 645 11,510 North Okanagan SC SC 4,583 54.74% 2,311 27.60% 4,583 1,429 2,272 – 88 – 8,372 North Peace River New SC 1,087 53.23% 664 32.52% 1,087 359 423 – – 173Campaigned as People's Party of BC. 2,042 Oak Bay Lib Lib 3,940 49.38% 1,249 15.65% 2,691 429 3,940 919 – – 7,979 Omineca SC SC 1,685 54.06% 838 26.89% 1,685 585 847 – – – 3,117 Prince Rupert Lib SC 2,151 42.39% 487 9.60% 2,151 1,259 1,664 – – – 5,074 Revelstoke CCF SC 1,339 49.81% 354 13.17% 1,339 985 364 – – – 2,688 Rossland-Trail SC SC 5,097 50.23% 2,258 22.25% 5,097 2,839 1,960 252 – – 10,148Saanich SC SC 6,542 39.45% 1,103 6.65% 6,542 5,439 3,344 1,257 – – 16,582 Salmon Arm SC SC 2,131 51.24% 677 16.28% 2,131 1,454 339 487 – – 4,159 Similkameen SC SC 5,189 53.94% 2,989 31.07% 5,189 2,200 1,744 487 – – 9,620 Skeena CCF SC 1,886 37.01% 63 1.24% 1,886 1,823 1,387 – – – 5,096 South Okanagan SC SC 7,694 69.70% 6,031 54.63% 7,694 1,663 1,230 451 – – 11,038 South Peace River New SC 1,787 50.80% 512 14.56% 1,787 1,275 456 – – – 3,518 Yale SC SC 1,315 47.34% 612 22.03% 1,315 599 703 161 – – 2,778

= open seat = turnout is above provincial average = winning candidate was in previous Legislature = incumbent had switched allegiance = previously incumbent in another riding = not incumbent; was previously elected to the Legislature = incumbency arose from byelection gain = other incumbents renominated = campaigned as Independent SC = multiple candidates

+ Results by riding - 1956 British Columbia general election (multiple-member districts) Riding Winning party Votes Voterswho votedNameMLAs 19531956 CCF Lib PC Total Burnaby2 12,103 15,304 3,972 513 – – 60,540 31,24311,583 12,692 3,895 478 – – Delta2 18,848 11,202 5,149 – 355 – 69,066 35,57817,762 10,798 4,680 – 272 – North Vancouver2 11,974 4,718 8,425 5,121 211 902George Henry Tomlinson Jr., a Socred MLA in the previous Legislature. 53,719 28,60211,298 4,266 6,386 – 191 227 Vancouver-Burrard2 12,824 7,826 4,972 1,095 260 203 52,369 27,79812,180 7,322 4,424 1,006 257 – Vancouver Centre2 9,112 4,561 3,996 969 485 – 36,302 19,1288,614 4,393 3,727 – 445 – Vancouver East2 18,640 19,774 4,229 720 – – 84,422 44,79517,821 18,541 4,156 541 – – Vancouver-Point Grey3 25,615 11,365 17,801 3,324 318 959 155,953 53,15223,696 8,435 15,599 2,878 – –23,238 7,979 12,924 1,822 – – Victoria City3 9,199 3,432 8,408George Frederick Thompson Gregory (Liberal)won the seat in a 1953 byelection, taking it from the Socreds. 1,476 162 – 60,519 21,4748,620 3,417 7,241 – 143 –7,827 3,265 7,205 – 124 –

Bold indicates incumbent in last Legislature.

= winning candidate

See also List of British Columbia political parties

1956 British Columbia general election

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