We don't know what government we got - or didn't get
It’s been 65 years since there was this much uncertainty following the results of a provincial election. On June 12, 1952, B.C. voters used the new transferable ballot system, and after numerous rounds of counting, a brand-new Social Credit minority government was in place. It took weeks to determine which party won – but at the end of all the counts, the Socreds had 19 seats and the CCF (forerunner of the NDP) had 18. “I don’t know what government we got. I don’t know what government we didn’t get. I don’t know what government we are going to get,” Barry Mather wrote in the Vancouver Sun, the day after the 1952 election. This year isn’t much different, at least thus far. We don’t know what government we will have after the absentee ballots are counted in two weeks – NDP candidate Ronna-Rae Leonard won Courtenay-Comox by nine votes, BC Liberal candidate Jim Benninger is the former commanding officer at CFB Comox, and many members of the military almost certainly voted via ab...