1996 British Columbia general election

← 1991 May 28, 1996 2001 →
← outgoing members elected members →
75 seats of theLegislative Assembly of British Columbia 38 seats were needed for a majority
Turnout	59.11%[1] 4.92pp
First party Second party   Leader Glen Clark Gordon Campbell Party New Democratic Liberal Leader since February 18, 1996 September 11, 1993 Leader's seat Vancouver Kingsway Vancouver-Point Grey Last election 51 seats 17 seats Seats won 39 33 Seat change 12 16 Popular vote 624,395 661,929 Percentage 39.45% 41.82% Swing 1.26 8.58   Third party Fourth party   Ref PDA Leader Jack Weisgerber Gordon Wilson Party Reform Progressive Democrat Leader since January 15, 1995 December 5, 1993 Leader's seat Peace River South Powell River-Sunshine Coast Last election 0 seats pre-creation Seats won 2 1 Seat change 2 1 Popular vote 146,734 90,797 Percentage 9.27% 5.74% Swing 9.09 5.74
Premier before election Glen Clark New Democratic Premier after election Glen Clark New Democratic

The1996 British Columbia general election was the 36th provincial election in the Province ofBritish Columbia,Canada. It was held to elect members of theLegislative Assembly of British Columbia. The election was called on April 30, 1996,^[2] and held on May 28, 1996. Voter turnout was 59.1 per cent of all eligible voters.

New Democratic Party leader and provincial premierMike Harcourt had resigned as the result of a fundraising scandal involving one of the members of his caucus.Glen Clark was chosen by the party to replace Harcourt. While polling prior to Harcourt's resignation had shown the NDP to be on-track for a landslide defeat, Clark was able to turn their fortunes around and led the party to a secondmajority government, defeating theLiberal Party ofGordon Campbell, who had become leader of the Liberal Party afterGordon Wilson had been forced out of the position because of his relationship with another Liberal member of the legislature,Judi Tyabji.

After Wilson was defeated by Campbell in the convention to choose a new leader, he and Tyabji left the Liberal Party to establish theProgressive Democratic Alliance. Wilson was able to win re-election, but Tyabji was not, who went down to defeat with all of the other candidates fielded by the new party.

The once-dominantSocial Credit Party collapsed. It electedGrace McCarthy as its leader in 1993, but she was unable to make a bid to get into the legislature until 1994, when she lost a by-election in the longtime Socred stronghold ofMatsqui. Soon afterward, four of its remaining six members defected toReform BC, leaving Social Credit without official status in the legislature. One more seat was lost in a by-election, reducing the party's representation to one MLA,Cliff Serwa. Serwa retired before the election, however, leaving the party with no incumbents. Party leader Larry Gillanders withdrew from the race while the campaign was in progress, saying that all right-wing parties should unite to topple the ruling NDP. The Socreds won only 0.4% of the vote and were completely shut out of the legislature. While the party still nominally existed until 2023 (with a hiatus from 2013 to 2016), it never elected another MLA.

Reform BC held on to two of its four seats.

Although the Liberals won the largest share of the popular vote, most of their votes were wasted in the outer regions of the province, and it won only 8 seats in theVancouver area. Additionally, they suffered from vote-splitting with Reform, the Progressive Democrats, and what little remained of the Socreds. These factors allowed the NDP to win 6 more seats than the opposition Liberals, eking out amajority government. This was the last election to return an NDP majority until2020, 24 years later.

This was also the first provincial election held in BC since thevoting age was lowered from 19 to 18 in 1992.^[3]

Elections to the36th Legislative Assembly of British Columbia (1996)^[34]

Party		Leader	Candidates	Votes						Seats
				#	±	%	Change (pp)			1991	1996	±
	New Democratic	Glen Clark	75	624,395	29,004	39.45	-1.26			51	39 / 75	12
	Liberal	Gordon Campbell	75	661,929	175,721	41.82	8.58			17	33 / 75	16
	Reform	Jack Weisgerber	75	146,734	143,701	9.27	9.09			–	2 / 75	2
	Progressive Democrat	Gordon Wilson	66	90,797	90,797	5.74	5.74			–	1 / 75	1
	Social Credit	Larry Gillanders	38	6,276	345,384	0.40	-23.65			7	0 / 75	7
	Green	Stuart Parker	71	31,511	18,861	1.99	1.13
	Independent		23	10,067	214	0.64	−0.07
	Family Coalition		14	4,150	2,840	0.26	0.17
	Natural Law		38	2,919	2,919	0.18	New
	Libertarian		17	2,041	1,181	0.13	0.07
	Conservative	Peter B. Macdonald	8	1,002	576	0.06	0.03
	Western Canada Concept	Doug Christie	5	374	277	0.02	−0.02
	Common Sense, Community, Family	Ross Ellis	5	291	291	0.02	New
	Communist		3	218	126	0.01	0.01
Total			513	1,582,704		100.00%
Rejected ballots[1]				9,951	20,782
Turnout[1]				1,592,655	99,455	71.50%	3.57
Registered voters[1]				2,227,424	238,370

  = Open seat

  = turnout is above provincial average

  = winning candidate was in previous Legislature

  = Incumbent had switched allegiance

  = Previously incumbent in another riding

  = Not incumbent; was previously elected to the Legislature

  = Incumbency arose from by-election gain

  = other incumbents renominated

  = previously an MP in theHouse of Commons of Canada

  = Multiple candidates

Of the 75 seats, 23 were open, of which 21 had members who chose not to stand for reelection, and two arose from MLAs campaigning in another riding. Voters in only 20 seats changed allegiance from the previous election in 1991:

• Electoral History of British Columbia: Supplement, 1987–2001(PDF).Elections BC. 1988.ISBN 0-7726-4789-5.
• Mutimer, David, ed. (2002).Canadian Annual Review of Politics and Public Affairs, 1996. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.ISBN 9781442672093.

• Elections BC 1996 Election
• Losing the vote, winning the election, CBC video

• General elections in British Columbia
• 1996 elections in Canada
• 1996 in British Columbia
• May 1996 in Canada

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from September 2023