BC Liberal Party

The British Columbia Liberal Party is a provincial political party in British Columbia, Canada. It has a confusing history which makes it difficult to equate with the federal Liberal Party of Canada, or other provincial parties in each Canadian province that call themselves "Liberal". At this point in time the party is probably best described as a coalition of many ideological groups, united by an opposition to the British Columbia NDP and favor bringing more free market reforms to the province.

Early History

From 1871 to 1903, British Columbia operated with a non partisan government. Party politics were only introduced in 1903 with the formation of the British Columbia Conservative Party. The Conservatives ruled the province until the Liberals were able to win the election of 1916 and form a government under Harlan Carey Brewster. The Liberals dominated provincial politics until 1941 with only one interruption.

This two party system was challenged with the rise of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in western Canada in the 1940s, and its successor the New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP).

The CCF first took power in Saskatchewan under Premier Tommy Douglas, and made major inroads in British Columbia. In order to block the rise of the socialist CCF, the Liberals and Conservatives formed a coalition government in 1941 when neither party had enough seats to form a majority government on its own. Tensions arose in the coalition due to the dominance of Liberals, and the coalition finally collapsed in 1951 when the Conservatives refounded themselves as an independent party.

In order to prevent the British Columbia CCF from being able to win in a three party competition, the government introduced the Single Transferable Vote with the expectation that Conservative would list the Liberals as their second choice and vice versa. Unexpectedly, the BC Social Credit League under its new leader W.A.C. Bennett was able to exploit this system, and emerged as the largest party when the ballots were counted in the 1952 general election. Voters were tired of both the Liberals and the Tories and were looking for alternatives. With the CCF having only one seat less than Social Credit, and both the Liberals and Tories having only a handful of seats, it was Social Credit that emerged as the new party of choice for business and voters who wanted to keep the CCF out of power. In 1953, Bennett won a majority government. Both the Liberal and the Conservative parties were reduced to fringe parties.

Supporters of the old Liberal and Conservative parties united under the umbrella of Social Credit. This coalition was able to keep the CCF/NDP out of power until the 1990s, with the exception of a three year period from 1972 to 1975 when the NDP formed a government under Dave Barrett.

The traditional Liberal' and Progressive Conservative parties, were marginalized, and won a handful of seats in the legislature throughout this period. Politics in BC became strongly polarized between left and right, and reflected an instability often referred to as 'frontier politics'.

Recent rebirth

The Social Credit party began to collapse in the late 1980s under the leadership of William Vander Zalm, who took the party in a social conservative direction. Vander Zalm was forced to resign due to a conflict of interest scandal.

During the 1991 provincial election, the ruling Social Credit Party disintegrated under Vander Zalm's successor, Premier Rita Johnston. Multiple Socred scandals had left many BC conservatives looking for another option. At this time, Gordon Wilson was the leader of the BC Liberal Party, and although his party had been practically non-existent in the polls, he insisted he be included in the televised debate between Premier Johnston and NDP Leader Michael Harcourt. The networks eventually agreed, and Wilson impressed many with his performance. The Liberal campaign suddenly gained tremendous momentum, and syphoned off a lot of support from the Socred campaign. In the end, the NDP won the election, but the Liberals came in second with 17 seats to the Socreds' 7. The Social Credit Party effectively died at that point.

In 1995, Vancouver Mayor Gordon Campbell successfully challenged Wilson for leadership of the Liberals. Wilson left the Liberals and formed his own party, the Progressive Democratic Alliance, before ultimately accepting a cabinet position in the NDP government.

Under Campbell's leadership and the influence of supporters of the federal Canadian Alliance and former members of the BC Social Credit Party, the BC Liberal Party moved to the right of centre. Liberal Party of Canada supporters remained in the party but took a reduced role. The result is a party whose platform resembles that of conservative Democrats or moderate Republicans in the states of Washington or Oregon, but with Canadian distinctions, such as proclaimed support for universal health care.

In 2001, Campbell beat the NDP and was elected Premier, the seventh premier in ten years. His government began a program of reducing the size of the provincial government, balancing the budget, and cutting or privatizing some social services.

See also:

• List of Canadian political parties

• List of British Columbia premiers