This is part four of a multipart series on the voting history of the North Island in the British Columbia General Election.
Leading up to the 1933 British Columbia Election, the Conservative Party of B.C. collapsed due to infighting.
Led by Simon Fraser Tolmie, the 21st premier of British Columbia, the party decided not to contest the election, instead, local candidates were allowed to run as Independents or Independent Conservatives. Furthermore, those who ran and supported Tolmie, did so under the banner of the Unionist Party of British Columbia. Another group of Conservatives, supporting former Premier William John Bowser (Bowser died on Oct. 25, just seven days before the election), ran as the Non-Partisan Independent Group.
In Comox, the riding had five candidates, all first-timers. Laurence Arnold Hanna ran for the Liberals. Born in Gravenhurst, Ont., he first represented the people in Alberni from 1928 to 1933 before coming to Comox. Ernest Richard Tarling put his hat in the ring as an Independent, while Hugh Gray Russell ran for the United Front (Workers and Farmers). George Robert Bates ran under the Independent Co-operative Commonwealth. The last candidate in the riding was Harlold Tuttle Allen of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation.
The Co-operative Commonwealth was established in 1933 as a provincial branch of the federal party formed a year prior with the same name in Calgary. The federal party was created by a coalition of the Socialist Party of Canada (1904-1925), the League of Socialist Reconstruction and other like-minded groups. The provincial version of the party would become a major player in provincial politics.
After the votes were counted, Hanna was named the winner, becoming the MLA for Comox, with 2,204 votes, Allen was in second with 1,590. The other three had less than 300 votes. Hanna's win contributed to the Liberal party winning 34 seats, 22 up from the previous election. Thomas Dufferin Pattullo became the 22nd Premier of British Columbia. The former journalist from Ontario moved to B.C. in 1908, where he became mayor of Prince Rupert before getting into provincial politics in 1916.
Pattullo also won the election in 1937. However, Hanna lost his seat to Colin Cameron of the Co-opertative Commonwealth. Cameron won with 2,336 votes, while Hanna received 1,876. Gordon Noel Money, the Conservative Party (now operating again) received 999 votes.
Cameron came to Canada when he was 10 from England. He became a farmer and worked in shipyards and also fought in the First World as an engineer deployed in France and Belgium as part of the 1st Canadian Pioneer Battalion.
Cameron retained his seat in 1941 (3,126 votes) beating William Edward Mantle (2,158) of the Liberal Party and Edward Roger Gibson Richardson (1,615) of the Conservative Party. The Liberal Party won the general election again, however, Pattullo received to form a coalition with the Conservative Party after the Liberals failed to get a majority government. The Co-operative Commonwealth, under the leadership of Harold Winch, won 14 seats, while Royal Lethington Maitland's Conservative Party won 12. He was replaced by John Hart, who became Premier.
With the Second World War in its third year, Pattullo was also a vocal opponent of allowing Chinese and Japanese Canadians equal rights of citizenship.
Hart, born in Ireland, took power of the Liberal Party to block the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (who won the popular vote) from forming government.
Cameron lost his seat in the 1945 election, with Herbert John Welch becoming the new MLA of Comox. Born in New Westminster, Welch was a captain in the Royal Air Force and ran as a Liberal-Conservative coalition member. It was a tight race between Cameron (3,362) and Welch (3,432).
Thomas McEwan, yet another Scottish-born politician, ran in the Labor-Progressive Party (renamed the Communist Party of British Columbia in 1960) in the election, coming in third. McEwan wasn't local to the area but was sent there to stand for election. The federal Community Party of Canada sent him to the Yukon to run as a federal candidate in 1945 as well, where he was closer to being elected than he was in Comox (within 162 votes).
The coalition continued in 1949. Welch retained his seat, this time with a higher lead over Cameron. They were the only two people to contest the Comox riding. The people in the riding cast 12,834 votes with only 435 being rejected. Cameron lost the election with 5,238. Welch had 7,596.
Despite the coalition between Liberals and Conservatives still going strong, Hart was no longer the leader. He retired in 1947 as Premier and finance minister. However, he was speaker for the assembly in 1948. Born as Björn Ingimar Jónsson in Victoria, the 24th Premier of British Columbia replaced Hart after his retirement and was successful in retaining his title in the 1949 election. He was also known as Boss Johnson, an anglicized version of his name.
Under Johnson's leadership, British Columbians were privy to compulsory health insurance. A three per cent provincial sales tax was introduced to pay for health insurance. The construction of the Kenney Dam also happened under his leadership. The British Columbia Provincial Police were also disbanded and replaced by the RCMP, a move that was heavily criticized at the time.
Leading up to the 1933 British Columbia Election, the Conservative Party of B.C. collapsed due to infighting.
Led by Simon Fraser Tolmie, the 21st premier of British Columbia, the party decided not to contest the election. Instead, local candidates were allowed to run as Independents or Independent Conservatives. Furthermore, those who ran and supported Tolmie did so under the banner of the Unionist Party of British Columbia. Another group of Conservatives, supporting former Premier William John Bowser (Bowser died on Oct. 25, just seven days before the election), ran as the Non-Partisan Independent Group.
Neither Welch nor Johnson were re-elected in 1952. Welch received 25.68 of the vote share, more than Social Credit League's Cyril Hugh Poole and Progressive Conservatives' W. Bruce Gordon, but not enough to beat William Campbell Moore of the Co-operative Commonwealth.
Moore served in the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War. He also served as alderman of Courtenay in 1951 and later served as the city's mayor.
The 1952 election was different than previous elections. Scared of the Co-operative Commonwealth, the coalition introduced preferential ballots that used an instant-runoff voting system. Expecting that voters would choose either Liberal or Conservative candidates, it had rather surprising results.
The British Columbia Social Credit Party was part of the social credit movement that arose in the province before the 1952 election and was part of the Social Credit League of British Columbia, which included the Social Credit League and the Union of Electors. However, this alliance broke down before 1949.
The Social Credit Party ran 47 candidates in the election, 19 of them won - only one more seat than the Co-operative Commonwealth.
The coalition essentially shot themselves in the foot, with Johnson's party only retaining six seats (Johnson lost his). The Progressive Conservatives only won four. It was a shocking victory for a party whose interim leader was a member of Alberta's federal parliament (Ernest George Hansell). William Andrew Cecil (W.A.C.) Bennett was elected as the leader of the Social Credit Party and the Premier of British Columbia, a title he would hold until 1972.
Bennett deliberately lost a non-confidence vote for an election in 1953, leading to his party winning a majority government. Moore, Comox's Co-operative Commonwealth's MLA, retained his seat. Poole of the Social Credit League came in second, while Liberal John Wesley Baikie was third. In fourth and fifth were Nigent Watson Spinks (Progressive Conservative) and John Higgin (Labor-Progressive).
A Social Credit Party candidate didn't run in Comox until 1956, with Daniel Robert John Campbell beating new Co-operative Commonwealth candidate Cyril Newman and the Liberal's Robert George McPhee. Campbell was a popular politician, retaining his seat as MLA until 1972.
Campbell had a very tight battle with Frederick Charles Wood (Co-operative Commonwealth) in 1960. The difference was only 28 votes, with Campbell getting 6,100. Higgin ran again, with Labor-Progressive now officially the Communist Party and Alan Gray ran as the Progressive Conservative candidate.
