Election Name: | 1903 British Columbia general election |
Country: | British Columbia |
Type: | parliamentary |
Ongoing: | no |
Party Colour: | no |
Party Name: | no |
Previous Election: | 1900 British Columbia general election |
Previous Year: | 1900 |
Previous Mps: | 9th Parliament of British Columbia |
Elected Mps: | 10th Parliament of British Columbia |
Next Election: | 1907 British Columbia general election |
Next Year: | 1907 |
Seats For Election: | 42 seats in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia 22 seats were needed for a majority |
Leader1: | Richard McBride |
Leader Since1: | June 1, 1903 |
Leaders Seat1: | Dewdney |
Seats1: | 22 |
Popular Vote1: | 27,913 |
Percentage1: | 46.43% |
Leader2: | James Alexander MacDonald |
Leader Since2: | October 3, 1903 |
Leaders Seat2: | Rossland City |
Seats2: | 17 |
Popular Vote2: | 22,715 |
Percentage2: | 37.78% |
Leader4: | unknown |
Leader Since4: | unknown |
Seats4: | 2 |
Popular Vote4: | 4,787 |
Percentage4: | 7.96% |
Leader5: | vacant |
Leader Since5: | vacant |
Seats5: | 1 |
Popular Vote5: | 4,421 |
Percentage5: | 7.36% |
Premier | |
Before Election: | Richard McBride |
Posttitle: | Premier after election |
After Election: | Richard McBride |
The 1903 British Columbia general election was the tenth general election for the Canadian province of British Columbia. It was held to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia (MLAs). The election was called on September 5, 1903, and held on October 3, 1903. The new legislature met for the first time on November 26, 1903.
This was the first election in British Columbia that was fought by political parties. Prior to this election, British Columbia politics were non-partisan.
The first election was dominated by the BC Conservative and Liberal parties, which were affiliated with existing parties at the federal level.
The Conservative Party won over 46% of the popular vote and a slim majority of the seats in the legislature.
An act was passed in 1902 to provide for an Assembly of 42 members,[1] of which 31 were elected in single-member districts. Of the multi-member districts, Cariboo returned two MLAs, Victoria City four, and Vancouver City five.[1] Each voter could cast as many votes as there were seats to fill in the multi-member districts.
|-! colspan="2" rowspan="2" | Political party! rowspan="2" | Party leader! colspan="2" | MLAs! colspan="2" | Votes|-! Candidates!1903!#!%|style="text-align:left;"|Richard McBride| 41 || 22 || 27,913 || 46.43%|style="text-align:left;"|James Alexander MacDonald| 39 || 17 || 22,715 || 37.78%|style="text-align:left;"|| 10 || 2 || 4,787 || 7.96%|style="text-align:left;"|| 5 || 1 || 4,421 || 7.36%|style="text-align:left;"|| 1 || – || 284 || 0.47%|-! colspan="3" style="text-align:left;" | Total| 95| 42! 60,120! 100.00%|-| style="text-align:left;" rowspan="2" colspan="3" |Acclamations| style="text-align:left;" | ||1|-| style="text-align:left;" | ||1|}
The following MLAs were elected: