We don't know what government we are going to get in B.C.
“I don’t know what government we got. I don’t know what government we did not get. I don’t know what government we are going to get.” - Barry Mather, Vancouver Sun , June 13, 1952 The comments from Sun columnist Mather (later an NDP MP for New Westminster, and later Surrey) reflect exactly what happened on Saturday, Oct. 19. B.C. residents cast over two million votes in the election, but 12 races where the margin of victory is less than 500 votes mean that no one knows who will win. On election day, the governing NDP led or won 46 seats, the Conservatives led or won 45, and the Green Party had elected two. Mather was writing about the pivotal election of 1952, when the coalition government that had ruled B.C. for 11 years broke apart. The Liberals and Conservatives each went their own way, and Social Credit under W.A.C. Bennett won 19 seats in a minority government, which featured the transferable ballot. The party had never elected an MLA prior to that election. Bennett went ...