British Columbia general election, 1945

Encyclopedia : B : BR : BRI : British Columbia general election, 1945

The British Columbia general election of 1945 was the twenty-first 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 31 1945, and held on October 25, 1945. The new legislature met for the first time on February 21, 1946.

A centre-right coalition was formed by the Liberal and Conservative parties in order to defeat the social democratic Co-operative Commonwealth Federation.

Although the Coalition won fewer votes than the Liberal and Conservative parties won in total in the previous election, the Coalition still won over half of the votes, and was able to form a majority government.

Results

12.1%
Party	Party leader	# of candidates	Seats	Popular vote
1941	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change \|- \|bgcolor="lightcoral"\|	Liberal	Coalition¹	John Hart	47	33	37	rowspan="2" align="right"
261,147	55.83	rowspan="2" align="right"
Progressive Conservative	Royal Maitland \|- \|bgcolor="#EEDDAA"\|	Co-operative Commonwealth fed.	Harold Winch	48	14	10	align="right"
175,960	37.62%	+4.26% \|- \|bgcolor=#EEBBBB\|	Labour	Tom Uphill	1	1	1	-	1,289	0.28%	-1.29% \|- \|bgcolor="tomato"\|	Labour Progressive	21	*	align="right"
*	16,479	3.52%	* \|- \|bgcolor="lightgreen"\|	Social Credit (alliance)²		16	*	align="right"
*	6,627	1.42%	* \|- \|bgcolor="#E5DBC3"\|	People's CCF		2	*	align="right"
*	2,786	0.60%	* \|- \|bgcolor="gainsboro"\|	Independent³	2	align="right"
align="right"
-	1,532	0.33%	-0.03% \|- \|bgcolor="#CFD0FF"\|	Independent Progressive Conservative⁴	2	*	align="right"
*	748	0.16%	* \|- \|bgcolor="white"\|	Democratic		1	*	align="right"
*	423	0.09%	* \|- \|bgcolor="#F7C95E"\|	Socialist Labour		3	align="right"
align="right"
-	285	0.06%	-0.09% \|- \|bgcolor="#FD8989"\|	Independent Liberal	1	*	align="right"
*	199	0.04%	* \|- \|bgcolor="#F7DBDB"\|	Independent Labour	1	*	align="right"
*	106	0.02%	* \|- \| bgcolor="gold"\|	Socialist		1	*	align="right"
*	105	0.02%	* \|- \|bgcolor="#C1BAF8"\|	Progressive Liberal		1	*	align="right"
*	61	0.01%	*
Total	147	48	48	-	467,747	100%
Source: [Elections BC]

Notes:

* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

¹ Compared to Liberal + Conservative total from previous election

² Various groups joined forces under the Social Credit name to contest the election.

³ Thomas Dufferin Pattullo (Prince Rupert), former premier and Liberal Party leader, ran as an Independent, and is included as such.

⁴ Includes L.H. MacQueen (Saanich), classified as an Independent PC since the Progressive Conservative Party, formerly the Conservative Party, was officially running as part of the Coalition and did not consider MacQueen as a legitimate party candidate.

Results by Riding

|- |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |align="center" |Charles Taschereau Beard |align="center" |Esquimalt
Coalition |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |bgcolor="#EEDDAA"|     |align="center" |Harold Edward Winch² |bgcolor="#EEDDAA"|     |- |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |align="center" |Thomas Alfred Love |align="center" |Grand Forks-Greenwood
Coalition |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |- |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |align="center" |Robert Henry Carson |align="center" |Kamloops
Coalition |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |- |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |align="center" |Ernest Crawford Carson |align="center" |Lillooet
Coalition |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |- |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |align="center" |George Sharratt Pearson |align="center" |Nanaimo and the Islands
Coalition |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |- |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |align="center" |Frank Putnam |align="center" |Nelson-Creston
Coalition |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |- |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |align="center" |Byron Ingemar Johnson |align="center" |New Westminster
Coalition |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |- |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |align="center" |Kenneth Cattanach MacDonald |align="center" |North Okanagan
Coalition |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |- |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |align="center" |John Henry Cates |align="center" |North Vancouver
Coalition |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |- |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |align="center" |Herbert Anscomb |align="center" |Oak Bay
Coalition |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |- |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |align="center" |William James Johnson |align="center" |Revelstoke
Coalition |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |- |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |align="center" |James Lockhart Webster |align="center" |Rossland-Trail
Coalition |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |- |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |align="center" |Norman William Whittaker |align="center" |Saanich
Coalition |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |- |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |align="center" |Arthur Brown Ritchie |align="center" |Salmon Arm
Coalition |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |- |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |align="center" |Reginald Robert Laird |align="center" |Similkameen
Coalition |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |- |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |align="center" |Edward Tourtellotte Kenney |align="center" |Skeena
Coalition |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |- |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |align="center" |William Andrew Cecil Bennett |align="center" |South Okanagan
Coalition |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |- |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |align="center" |Donald Cameron Brown |align="center" rowspan=2 |Vancouver-Burrard
Coalition |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |- |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |align="center" |George Moir Weir |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |- |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |align="center" |Allan James MacDonell |align="center" rowspan=2 |Vancouver Centre
Coalition |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |- |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |align="center" |Gordon Sylvester Wismer |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |- |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |align="center" |Royal Lethington Maitland |align="center" rowspan=3 |Vancouver-Point Grey
Coalition |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |- |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |align="center" |James Alexander Paton |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |- |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |align="center" |Tilly Jean Rolston |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |- |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |align="center" |John Hart |align="center" rowspan=3 |Victoria City
Coalition |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |- |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |align="center" |Nancy Hodges |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |- |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |align="center" |William Thomas Straith |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |- |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |align="center" |John Joseph Alban Gillis |align="center" |Yale
Coalition |bgcolor="#32C5D6"|     |- |- | |align="center"|¹ Premier-Elect and Incumbent | | | | |- | |align="center"|² Leader of the Opposition |- | align="center" colspan="10"|Source: [Elections BC] |- |}

British Columbia general election, 1945

Results

Results by Riding

See also