This is the fifth and final part of a multi-part series on how people of the North Island and Comox voted in the British Columbia General elections. This part will focus on the elections of 1963 to 1986.
It was the height of the Cold War, and the political scene in British Columbia was dominated by the Social Credit Party led by W.A.C. Bennett.
Originally a party that focused on credit policies of monetary reform, Bennett had squashed the party's original foundations, heralding them into a more conservative and populist party. And popular they were. In 1963, Bennett's party won a majority government with 33 seats. Robert Strachan's New Democratic Party of British Columbia (BC NDP - the party had changed their name from the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation in 1961 when they joined the Canadian Labour Congress nationally to create a new party) came in second, with 14 seats. While the B.C. Liberals only won five seats. The Progressive Conservative Party, led by Davie Fulton, did not win a single seat, much like in the previous election.
Bennett had been premier since 1952, elected in a surprise win for his party after the Liberals and Conservatives, running as a coalition, changed the voting method from first past the post to preferential voting. After winning a minority government, Bennett forced an election in 1953, just nine months after being elected in 1952, to engineer winning a majority government, which paid off. In that election, he changed the voting method back to first past the post.
Bennett was also fond of playing into Western fears of the Cold War and the "Red Menace."
In Comox, Daniel Robert John Campbell retained his seat again, winning a third term in office. Frederick Sidney Williams was his only real challenger. A member of the BC NDP, Williams won 6,238 votes to Campbell's 6,598. Duncan McIntyre Fraser of the Progressive Conservatives received 1,475 votes, while Liberal David Alexander Elrix had 1,259 choose him on the ballot.
Campbell won again in 1966, challenged by BC NDPer Neville Shanks, and Liberal Joseph J. Cvetkovich, as did Bennett, again with 33 seats for a majority government. The BC NDP improved, with 16 seats. The Liberal Party won an additional seat, for six.
It was the same in 1969, with Campbell getting 7,910 votes. Harry Harris of the BC NDP received 7,131, while Olga Ruth Henrietta Chown received 2,303. It was another majority win for Bennett's Social Credit Party, winning 38 seats. The BC NDP was now led by Thomas R. Berger. He challenged Strachan in 1967 for party leadership but lost the challenge. However, Strachan stepped down in 1969 before the election, believing change was needed. Berger, then the MLA for the Vancouver-Burrard riding, and Dave Barrett, MLA for Coquitlam, were challenged by two others in the 1969 leadership convention. Berger ended up winning the leadership of the party. Bennett, however, called a snap election, resulting in the BC NDP losing four seats and Berger's resignation. He was succeeded by Barrett.
British Columbia had been under the leadership of Bennett and the Social Credit Party for 20 years by the 1972 election. It was also the end. Their campaign was troubled. Social Credit Party MLA Phil Gaglardi of Kamloops and Minister of Rehabilitation and Social Improvement had a lot of things to say about Bennett. According to David J. Mitchell's W.A.C. Bennett and the Rise of British Columbia, Gaglardi told a newspaper that Bennet would resign after the election and called him "an old man who doesn't understand what is happening with the young people of this province," and described the cabinet as "filled with square pegs in round holes." Most of this could be chalked up to sour grapes. Bennett had beaten Gaglardi for leadership of the party in 1952 when they won the election.
Despite the Social Credit Party's lack of cohesion, they were still expected to win. However, just like 1952, the result was a surprise. The Social Credit Party only managed to win 10 seats, with Barretts winning 38 seats. The Liberal Party won five seats, and the Progressive Conservatives won two seats, returning to the legislature for the first time since 1953.
One of the MLAs helping Barrett's bid to succeed as premier was Karen Sanford. Sanford received 57.40 per cent of the vote share in the Comox riding, beating Campbell of the Social Credit Party. It wasn't much of a contest either, with 12,540 voters picking her. Campbell only got 6,376, landing him in second place ahead of Patrick Melvin Thompson (Liberal) and Lawrence Foort (Progressive Conservative).
The election also marked the end of Bennett and Campbell's career in politics. But another Bennett would become Premier in 1975.
Bennett's son, Bill, became the party leader after his resignation in 1973. The younger Bennett was elected party leader, and then premier when voters hit the polling stations. The Social Credit Party was the leading party once again, with the younger Bennett appealing to traditional Liberal and Progressive Conservative voters. The Socreds won 35 seats, 25 more than the last election, while Barrtt's party won 18 seats, losing 20. The Liberal and Progressive Conservative Party won one a piece (this was the last election in which the Conservative Party of B.C. won a seat until 2024).
In Comox, Sanford and the BC NDP remained in power, beating Daniel Edgard Hanouse (Social Credit), Norman L. McLaren (Liberal) and Victor Albert Stephens (Progressive Conservative).
The 1975 general election was also the last time the North Island would be represented in the Comox riding, with a new North Island riding added.
The younger Bennett was elected again in 1979, fighting off Barrett once again. However, the Social Credit Party lost a lot of ground in seats, and the popular vote was quite close. Bennett's party received 677,607 votes, while Barrett's had 646.188. They were also the only two parties with any seats in the legislature, with Social Credit winning 31 (four less than before) and the BC NDP with 26 (eight more than before).
However, Comox was still orange, with Sanford winning her third term, beating two challengers in Eric Harry Kellow (Progressive Conservative) and Delbert Keith Doll (Social Credit).
In the new North Island riding, BC NDP's Colin Stuart Gabelmann, a former MLA for the North Vancouver-Seymour riding (from 1972 to 1975), was elected. He was not unseated until 1996. During his time as an MLA, he served as both the opposition and government whip, the minister of government services and sport and the Attorney General (1991 to 1996).
Bennett won a third term in 1983, once again beating Barrett with a majority. Once again, they were also the only two parties represented in the legislature, with the 53 candidates for the Liberal Party (led by Shirley McLoughlin) receiving less than three per cent of the popular vote. The Progressive Conservative Party's 12 candidates also failed to get elected. Other parties involved in the election were the Western Canada Concept Party, Green, Communist, Western National, and 18 Independents.
Sanford continued the BC NDP's dominance in the Comox riding, beating Thomas John Finnie (Liberal), Allan Wayne Griffiths (Western Canada Concept - a party advocating for the separation of the western provinces to form a new nation), George Herbert Parke Smith (Social Credit) and Victor Albert Stephens (Independent).
Gabelmann also retained his seat in the North Island. He did so again in the 1986 election when an election was called on for Sep. 24. Held on Oct. 22, the Social Credit Party won yet again, but this time with a different face. Bennett, whose government had slashed social services, gutted labour laws, cut education costs and provoked a general strike, blamed public school teachers for the economic woes the province was facing and lost favour with a lot of the electorate. In 1986, he decided to step down and was replaced by Bill Vander Zalm. Originally a member of the Liberal Party of Canada and the BC Liberal Party, he switched his allegiance to the Social Credit Party in 1974 and was elected as MLA in Surrey in the 1975 general election, where he served until 1983 before moving to Richmond, where he intended to be elected as MLA and Premier. Under Bennett, he was the minister of human resources (1975 to 1978), the minister of municipal affairs (1978 to 1982) and the minister of education (1982 to 1983)
Vander Zalm won, beating out BC NDP's new leader, Bob Skelly. Vander Zalm's party won 47 seats, allowing for a majority.
However, it was the beginning of the end for the Social Credit Party. Vander Zalm's government was rife with scandal, the biggest one being a conflict of interest from Vander Zalm regarding the sale of his Fantasy Gardens theme park, which forced him to resign in 1991, in which he was accused of mixing private business with public office. Criminal charges were laid but acquitted because the prosecution could not prove Vander Zalm's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
In Comox, Stan Hagen unseated Sanford. A member of the Social Credit Party, he was named as minister of several portfolios until he lost his seat in 1991.
