BY DANIEL SIMS
Special to the News
“The socialists hordes are the gates of British Columbia,” warned Premier W.A.C. Bennett during the 1972 provincial election. Unfortunately for him, it did not lead to electoral victory. But it did, however, reflect a larger trend in British Columbian politics that first emerged following the 1941 provincial election. Namely the politics of this province have been shaped by the democratic socialist Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (after 1961 New Democratic Party) and another party opposed to them. And make no mistake, this opposition has always stemmed from the fact that many people in this province think CCF/NDP are going to be bad if they get into power and/or are bad once they get into power.
For the first 32 years there were no political parties in BC politics. Sure, they existed in federal elections, but not in provincial ones. It was not until 1903 that Conservative Party of British Columbia was formed, followed shortly after by the Liberal Party, and until 1933 they battled for power in numerous provincial elections. It was in that year that Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) formed and became the official opposition. All told, during this period we had three Conservative premiers: Richard McBride, William Bowser, and Simon Fraser Tolmie. Tolmie was also the first Métis premier in the province, although given his time in office (1928-1933) it never came up.
It was emergence of CCF that changed the dynamics of politics in British Columbia. In 1941 the incumbent Liberals won with a minority. Rather than govern in such a situation with the CCF as official opposition, they formed a coalition with the BC Conservatives to form a majority. In doing so they ousted their leader Duff Patullo and replaced him with John Hart, the namesake of the Hart Highway. This coalition continued until 1952 when the BC Conservatives left to become the official opposition and the unexpected happened.
The year prior a hardware salesman named W.A.C. Bennett had tried to become leader of the party and lost. Rather than remain a member of the BC Conservatives he instead joined the relatively unknown Social Credit League. In 1952 provincial election, he ran as a candidate in the South Okanagan riding and won. What’s more the decision of the provincial government to move from a first past the post electoral system to preferential voting resulted in the Socreds winning the most seats as many voters selected them as their second choice. Ultimately it doesn’t matter though, and now the province would experience the premiership of W.A.C. Bennett until in 1972 and except for David Barrett and the NDP forming government from 1972 to 1975 Social Credit govern this province until 1991.
During this time period both the BC Conservatives and BC Liberals were relegated to third parties status as the Socreds and CCF/NDP dominated elections. In 1991 the Socreds would not only lose, but begin the process of ceasing to be politically relevant. Instead, the BC Liberals formed opposition and in doing so began to actively present themselves as not only distinct from the federal Liberal Party, but also as the only party that could defeat the NDP. And defeat them they did in 2001 with the largest majority in BC history. Like Social Credit before them by built a political dynasty, remaining in power until 2017 when Premier Christy Clark lost a vote of confidence and the NDP formed government.
Unlike Social Credit, the BC Liberals were not able to keep the NDP to a single term and following the 2020 provincial election they underwent some soul searching. This resulted in a name change and so the BC United Party was formed. But it had a new opponent in the BC Conservatives, now led by former BC Liberal John Rustad, who after being ejected from the Liberals for sharing a tweet that challenged the view the climate change is caused by carbon dioxide had joined the party and became its leader.
Love him or hate him, he not only made the BC Conservatives relevant again, but also ran a pre-campaign that was so successful that the BC United ended their own on 28 August 2024. So, instead of presenting voters with the choice of picking the NDP and BC United as our next provincial government, we now being faced with a choice between NDP and BC Conservatives.
There is a good chance we will soon have fourth Conservative premier as the oldest political party in the province finds itself reborn.
Daniel Sims is the Associate Professor First Nations Studies at the University of Northern British Columbia