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The Origins of the BC
Conservative
Party
British Columbia had a
non-partisan Government until
Sir Richard McBride introduced
the party system in BC. For a
period of seven years the
province had earned a
reputation for unstable
government. From 1895-1902 BC
had five Premiers. Non-partisan
government relied more on which
elected MLA had the most
support, rather than the
support of the voters.
1885 - 1898
John Turner became Premier
and was summarily dismissed by
the Lt. Governor for lack of
electoral support. His faction
had elected of 18 of 38 MLAs
and still had to hear from two
electoral districts. Citing
precedents the Lt. Governor
acted before the final results
were in.
1898 - 1900
Charles Semlin became
Premier. Immediately he
launched a series of personal
attacks against a member of his
government. A non confidence
motion followed that was lost
by one vote, cast by the member
that was attacked.
Feb 1900 - June 14,
1900
Joe Martin was appointed by
the Lt. Governor against the
wishes of the elected members
of the Legislature. The result
was that Mr. Martin had only
eight members willing to
support him and he became the
most despised member in the
Legislature. A non confidence
vote resulted with a 30-1 vote
against Mr. Martin.
1900 -
1902
Dunsmuir became the Premier.
His interest was mainly to
safeguard his wealth from the
coal being mined on his land on
Vancouver Island. To bolster
his support in the Legislature,
he appointed Joe Martin instead
of Sir Richard McBride. The
result was that Sir Richard
became the leader of the
Opposition. What followed was a
never ending feud between Joe
Martin and Sir Richard.
Dunsmuir resigned as a result
and Prior became the
Premier.
1902 - 1903
Prior became Premier and was
rocked by a series of scandals.
Most appalling was the awarding
of a contract given to the
Premier's company to supply
hardware for a railway bridge.
Coincidentally, the company
also made a bid to supply wire
cable while Prior was the
Minister of Public Works. The
bid was the lowest of the bids
and received the contract.
June 1 - June 3, 1903 the
Leader of the Opposition, Sir
Richard became Premier only to
have the legislature dismissed
and and election called. At
that point he informed the
Legislature that the election
would be fought using the
political party system. The
election was called for October
3, 1903 and the BC
Conservatives won with a two
seat majority. The Socialist
MLAs elected from Nanaimo and
Parksville supported the
Conservative government after
they were assured the
government would do nothing to
upset the labour peace at the
time.
The First Conservative
Convention
Held in Revelstoke, the
Convention approved state owned
coal mines and railways,
reforestation clauses in timber
leases and control of freight
rates on railways built with
cash or land bonuses. Also
approved was that the telephone
& telegraph industry should
be owned and run exclusively by
the government.
The First Conservative
Newspaper
First published in 1941 and
simply called the BC
Conservative. First printing
was fifty copies and put on
glossy paper.
The Liberal Conservative
Coalition
Party
In the 1941 election the
Liberals failed to gain a
majority of the seats in the
Legislature. The Conservatives
had come back from electoral
oblivion with 12 seats to the
Liberals 21. The CCF had 14.
Fearing the government would
survive a majority of the
Liberals were pushing for
coalition with the
Conservatives. Duff Pattullo
did not approve the idea of a
Coalition and felt his
government would not fall. The
Liberals and the Conservatives
met with separate meeting and
agreed to the Coalition. John
Hart became the leader of the
Liberals. The Conservatives
were given three Cabinet post
to the Liberals five with the
understanding that the next
time, the leader of the
Coalition would be the
Conservative Leader.
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