Canadian provincial election
The 1996 British Columbia general election was the 36th provincial 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 April 30, 1996, and held on May 28, 1996. Voter turnout was 59.1 per cent of all eligible voters. The election is notable for producing a "false-winner" outcome, rewarding a party that got second in the popular vote with a majority government.
New Democratic Party leader and provincial premier Mike Harcourt had resigned as the result of a fundraising scandal involving one of the members of his caucus. Glen Clark was chosen by the party to replace Harcourt. While polling prior to Harcourt's resignation had shown the NDP to be on-track for a landslide defeat, Clark was able to turn their fortunes around and led the party to a second majority government, defeating the Liberal Party of Gordon Campbell, who had become leader of the Liberal Party after Gordon Wilson had been forced out of the position because of his relationship with another Liberal member of the legislature, Judi Tyabji.
After Wilson was defeated by Campbell in the convention to choose a new leader, he and Tyabji left the Liberal Party to establish the Progressive Democratic Alliance. Wilson was able to win re-election, but Tyabji was not, who went down to defeat with all of the other candidates fielded by the new party.
The once-dominant Social Credit Party collapsed. It elected Grace McCarthy as its leader in 1993, but she was unable to make a bid to get into the legislature until 1994, when she lost a by-election in the longtime Socred stronghold of Matsqui. Soon afterward, four of its remaining six members defected to Reform BC, leaving Social Credit without official status in the legislature. One more seat was lost in a by-election, reducing the party's representation to one MLA, Cliff Serwa. Serwa retired before the election, however, leaving the party with no incumbents. Party leader Larry Gillanders withdrew from the race while the campaign was in progress, saying that all right-wing parties should unite to topple the ruling NDP. The Socreds won only 0.4% of the vote and were completely shut out of the legislature. While the party still nominally existed until 2023 (with a hiatus from 2013 to 2016), it never elected another MLA.
Reform BC held on to two of its four seats.
Although the Liberals won the largest share of the popular vote, most of their votes were wasted in the outer regions of the province, and it won only 8 seats in the Vancouver area. Additionally, they suffered from vote-splitting with Reform, the Progressive Democrats, and what little remained of the Socreds. These factors allowed the NDP to win 6 more seats than the opposition Liberals, eking out a majority government. This was the last election to return an NDP majority until 2020, 24 years later.
This was also the first provincial election held in BC since the voting age was lowered from 19 to 18 in 1992.
Results.
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MLAs elected.
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Synopsis of results.
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 ;templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" / ;  = Open seat
 ;templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" / ;  = turnout is above provincial average
 ;templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" / ;  = winning candidate was in previous Legislature
 ;templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" / ;  = Incumbent had switched allegiance
 ;templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" / ;  = Previously incumbent in another riding
 ;templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" / ;  = Not incumbent; was previously elected to the Legislature
 ;templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" / ;  = Incumbency arose from by-election gain
 ;templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" / ;  = other incumbents renominated
 ;templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" / ;  = previously an MP in the House of Commons of Canada
 ;templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" / ;  = Multiple candidates
Seats changing hands.
Of the 75 seats, 23 were open, of which 21 had members who chose not to stand for reelection, and two arose from MLAs campaigning in another riding. Voters in only 20 seats changed allegiance from the previous election in 1991:
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References.
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