2005 British Columbia general election


The 2005 British Columbia general election was held on May 17, 2005, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of British Columbia, Canada. The British Columbia Liberal Party formed the government of the province prior to this general election under the leadership of Premier Gordon Campbell. The main opposition was the British Columbia New Democratic Party, whose electoral representation has been reduced to two MLAs in the previous provincial election in 2001.
The BC Liberals retained power, with a reduced majority of 46 out of 79 seats, down from the record 77 out of 79 in 2001. Voter turnout was 58.2 per cent.
Under amendments to the BC Constitution Act passed in 2001, BC elections are now held on fixed dates: the second Tuesday in May every four years. This was the first provincial election for which elector data in the provincial elector list was synchronised with the National Register of Electors.

Electoral reform referendum

The BC electoral reform referendum was held in conjunction with this election. This referendum asked voters whether or not they support the proposed electoral reforms of the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform, which included switching to a single transferable vote, the new electoral system would have been implemented for the general election in 2009. Although the proposed reform attracted a clear majority, the level of support was just short of that required for mandatory implementation. A new vote on a revamped version of STV was held in conjunction with the 2009 British Columbia general election.

[|Results] by party

*
* denotes that the party did not contest the election in question

Results by region

xx Denotes party received less than 0.1%

Timeline

Pre-campaign period

Below are the set of polls closest to the election, from organizations polling in British Columbia
Besides the usual public polling by market research firms, other organizations have been attempting to predict the results of the upcoming election using alternate methods. Results suggest that all three projections below underestimated NDP seats and overestimated Liberal seats:
UBC's Election Stock Market tracks the prices of contracts whose value depend on election results:

Popular vote: Lib 44.5%, NDP 35.9%, Green 13.9%, Other 5.3%

Seats: Lib 48.6, NDP 29.4, Other 1.6

The aggregates submissions from the Internet and subjectively predicts winners based on the submissions :

Seats: Lib 50, NDP 29, Other 0
Will McMartin at the progressive online newspaper makes by looking at "historic election results and selected demographics, as well as public opinion polls, regional sources and input from Election Central readers" :

Seats: Lib 51, NDP 28, Other 0

Political parties

British Columbia has Canada's least restrictive elections laws with regard to political party registration, and consequently there are currently nearly 50 parties registered with Elections BC, by far the most of any jurisdiction in the country. Twenty-five parties contested the 2005 election, also a considerably greater number than anywhere else in Canada.

British Columbia Liberal Party

New Democratic Party of British Columbia

Green Party of British Columbia

Democratic Reform British Columbia

British Columbia Marijuana Party

Minor parties

Candidates

The deadline for candidate registration was Wednesday, May 4, 2005, at 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time.

Kootenay, Columbia and Boundary

Okanagan and Shuswap

Thompson and Cariboo

Fraser Valley

Surrey

Richmond and Delta

Vancouver's eastern suburbs

Vancouver

North Shore and Sunshine Coast

Vancouver Island

Greater Victoria