British Columbia general election, 1953

The British Columbia general election of 1953 was the 24th 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 April 10, 1953, and held on June 9, 1953. The new legislature met for the first time on September 15, 1953.

The minority government formed in 1952 by the conservative Social Credit of Premier W.A.C. Bennett lasted only nine months before new elections were called. Social Credit was re-elected with a majority in the legislature to a second term in government with almost 38% of the popular vote.

The social democratic Co-operative Commonwealth Federation formed the official opposition with the only significant opposition caucus (14 seats).

The British Columbia Liberal Party lost two of its six seats despite maintaining its 23% share of the popular vote.

The Progressive Conservative Party lost three of its four seats in the legislature, as its share of the popular vote fell from almost 17% to under 6%.

One seat was won by a Labour candidate.

Results

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
				1952	Elected	% Change	First count	%	Change	Final count	%
	Social Credit	W.A.C. Bennett	48	19	28	+47.4%	274,771	37.75%	+10.55%	300,372	45.54%
	CCF	Arnold Webster	47	18	14	-22.2%	224,513	30.85%	+0.07%	194,414	29.48%
	Liberal	Arthur Laing	48	6	4	-33.3%	171,671	23.59%	+0.13%	154,090	23.36%
	Progressive Conservative	Deane Finlayson	39	4	1	-75.0%	40,780	5.60%	-11.24%	7,326	1.11%
	Labour	Tom Uphill	1	1	1	-	1,601	0.22%	+0.06%	1,793	0.27%
	Labour Progressive		25	-	-	-	7,496	1.03%	+0.70%	816	0.12%
	Christian Democratic		14	-	-	-	5,036	0.69%	-0.24%	752	0.12%
	Independents		6	-	-	-	1,951	0.27%	0.10%	-	-
	People's		1	*	-	*	20	x	*	-	-
Total			229	48	48	-	727,839	100%	-	659,563	100%
Source: Elections BC

Notes:

* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

x - less than 0.005% of the popular vote.

Results by riding

Results of British Columbia general election, 1953
Government				Opposition
	Member	Riding & party		Riding & party		Member
	William Ralph Talbot Chetwynd	Cariboo Social Credit			Alberni CCF	Stanley John Squire
	William Kenneth Kiernan	Chilliwack Social Credit			Atlin CCF	Frank Calder
	Richard Orr Newton	Columbia Social Credit			Burnaby CCF	Ernest Edward Winch
	Thomas Irwin	Delta Social Credit			Comox CCF	William Campbell Moore
	Lyle Wicks	Dewdney Social Credit			Cowichan-Newcastle CCF	Robert Martin Strachan^2
	Llewllyn Leslie King	Fort George Social Credit			Cranbrook CCF	Leo Thomas Nimsick
	Philip Arthur Gaglardi	Kamloops Social Credit			Grand Forks-Greenwood CCF	Rupert Haggen
	Herbert Joseph Bruch	Esquimalt Social Credit			Kaslo-Slocan CCF	Randolph Harding
	Wesley Drewett Black	Nelson-Creston Social Credit			Mackenzie Social Credit	Anthony John Gargrave
	Lorne Shantz	North Okanagan Social Credit			New Westminster CCF	Rae Eddie
	George Henry Tomlinson Jr.	North Vancouver Social Credit			Revelstoke CCF	Vincent Segur
	Cyril Morley Shelford	Omineca Social Credit			Skeena CCF	Frank Howard
	Charles William Parker	Peace River Social Credit			Vancouver East CCF	Arthur James Turner
	Robert Edward Sommers	Rossland-Trail Social Credit				Arnold Alexander Webster
	John Douglas Tidball Tisdalle	Saanich Social Credit			Fernie Labour (Party)	Thomas Aubert Uphill	;
	James Allan Reid	Salmon Arm Social Credit			Lillooet Liberal	James Gordon Gibson
	Frank Richter, Jr.	Similkameen Social Credit			Oak Bay Liberal	Philip Archibald Gibbs
	William Andrew Cecil Bennett^1	South Okanagan Social Credit			Prince Rupert Liberal	Arthur Bruce Brown
	Eric Charles Fitzgerald Martin	Vancouver-Burrard Social Credit			Vancouver-Point Grey Liberal	Arthur Laing
	Bert Price				Nanaimo and the Islands Progressive Conservative	Larry Giovando
	Alexander Small Matthew	Vancouver Centre Social Credit
	George Churchill Moxham
	Thomas Audley Bate	Vancouver-Point Grey Social Credit
	Robert William Bonner
	Lydia Arsens	Victoria City Social Credit
	William Neelands Chant
	Walter Percival Wright
	Irvine Finlay Corbett	Yale Social Credit
	^1 Premier-Elect	^2 Leader of the Opposition
Source: Elections BC

See also

• List of British Columbia political parties
• History and usage of the Single Transferable Vote