British Columbia Social Credit Party leadership conventions

The British Columbia Social Credit Party was a conservative political party in the Province of British Columbia, Canada. The provincial Social Credit movement was divided in its early years and was largely under the influence of the Alberta Social Credit League and did not have a functional leadership before 1952.

The 1952 leadership convention was held when the party was largely dominated by the Alberta leadership of the national social credit movement. Alberta Premier Ernest Manning hand picked Ernest George Hansell to lead the BC party into the election despite the fact that Hansell was an Alberta politician. W.A.C. Bennett was chosen party leader by Social Credit MLAs following the election.

In 1973, the party elected W.A.C. Bennett's son, Bill Bennett, on the first ballot.

All of the party's leadership conventions before 1993 were delegated, i.e., local party riding associations selected delegates to attend a convention and elect a leader by secret ballot.

The 1993 leadership election was determined by a "one-member, one-vote" system, using mail-in preferential ballots. The 1994 leadership election used the same system, but did not incorporate preferential balloting as there were only two candidates.

1952 leadership convention

Held prior to the 1952 general election
*Reverend Ernest George Hansell "acclaimed"
*W.A.C. Bennett (declined nomination)
*Lyle Wicks (declined nomination)

At this time the Alberta Social Credit League still dominated the British Columbia association. Hansell, an Alberta Social Credit Member of Parliament, was the hand-picked candidate of Alberta Premier Ernest Manning. Bennett and Wicks were both nominated from the floor, however, but declined allowing Hansell to be acclaimed. Following the general election in which Social Credit unexpectedly emerged as the largest party, Wicks, who was the British Columbia party's president, called a new leadership vote at which only elected Social Credit MLAs could vote. In this contest, held on July 15, 1952, Bennett defeated Philip Gaglardi by a margin of 10 to 9 to become Social Credit leader and was invited by the lieutenant-governor to become Premier of the province.cite news
last =Hawthorn
first =Tom
coauthors =
title =LYLE WICKS: 1912-2004 The straight man of wacky B.C. politics; Streetcar operator became a stalwart in province's first Socred government
work =Globe and Mail
pages =R7
language =
publisher =
date =2004-06-21
url =
accessdate = ]

1973 leadership convention

(Held on November 24, 1973.)

First Ballot:

*BENNETT, William R. 833
*MCCLELLAND, Bob 269
*SCHROEDER, Harvey 204
*CHABOT, James 97
*SMITH, Ed 74
*MASON, James 10

1986 leadership convention

(Held on July 29-30, 1986.)

First Ballot:

*VANDER ZALM, Bill 367
*MCCARTHY, Grace 244
*SMITH, Bud 202
*SMITH, Brian 196
*NIELSEN, Jim 54
*REYNOLDS, John 54
*ROGERS, Stephen 43
*WENMAN, Bob 40
*MICHEL, Cliff 32
*RITCHIE, Bill 28
*COUVELIER, Mel 20
*CAMPBELL, Kim 14

Second Ballot (Campbell eliminated, five others withdraw):

*VANDER ZALM, Bill 457
*MCCARTHY, Grace 280
*SMITH, Brian 255
*SMITH, Bud 219
*REYNOLDS, John 39
*NIELSEN, Jim 30

Third Ballot (Nielsen eliminated, Reynolds and Bud Smith withdraw):

*VANDER ZALM, Bill 625
*SMITH, Brian 342
*MCCARTHY, Grace 305

Fourth Ballot (McCarthy eliminated):

*VANDER ZALM, Bill 801
*SMITH, Brian 454

1991 interim leadership

On April 2, 1991, Rita Johnston was elected by the party's MLAs as their interim leader, defeating Russ Fraser by 21 votes to 17 on the fourth ballot. Claude Richmond, Norm Jacobsen and Mel Couvelier had previously been eliminated.

1991 leadership convention

(Held on July 20, 1991.)

First Ballot:

*MCCARTHY, Grace 659
*JOHNSTON, Rita 652
*COUVELIER, Mel 331
*JACOBSEN, Norm 169
*CRANDELL, Duane 35

Second Ballot (Couvelier supports Johnston):

*JOHNSTON, Rita 941
*MCCARTHY, Grace 881

1993 leadership election

(Held on November 6, 1993.)

First Ballot:

*MCCARTHY, Grace 7,338
*BRUCE, Graham 5,321
*RICHMOND, Claude 2,083
*TURNER, Jim 91

Second Ballot:

*MCCARTHY, Grace 7,351
*BRUCE, Graham 5,352
*RICHMOND, Claude 2,099

Third Ballot:

*MCCARTHY, Grace 7,700
*BRUCE, Graham 6,245

1994 leadership election

(Announced on November 4, 1994.)

First Ballot:

*GILLANDERS, Larry 1,034
*CALEB, John 787

References