| Election Name: | 1966 British Columbia general election |
| Country: | British Columbia |
| Type: | parliamentary |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Party Colour: | no |
| Party Name: | no |
| Previous Election: | 1963 British Columbia general election |
| Previous Year: | 1963 |
| Next Election: | 1969 British Columbia general election |
| Next Year: | 1969 |
| Outgoing Members: | 27th Parliament of British Columbia |
| Elected Members: | 28th Parliament of British Columbia |
| Seats For Election: | 55 seats of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia 28 seats were needed for a majority |
| Election Date: | September 12, 1966 |
| Leader1: | W. A. C. Bennett |
| Leader Since1: | 1952 |
| Leaders Seat1: | South Okanagan |
| Last Election1: | 33 seats, |
| Seats1: | 33 |
| Seat Change1: | 0 |
| Popular Vote1: | 342,751 |
| Percentage1: | 45.59% |
| Swing1: | 4.76 |
| Leader2: | Robert Strachan |
| Leader Since2: | 1956 |
| Leaders Seat2: | Cowichan-Malahat |
| Last Election2: | 14 seats, |
| Seats2: | 16 |
| Seat Change2: | 2 |
| Popular Vote2: | 252,753 |
| Percentage2: | 33.62% |
| Swing2: | 5.82 |
| Image3: | BCLP |
| Leader3: | Ray Perrault |
| Leader Since3: | 1959 |
| Leaders Seat3: | North Vancouver-Capilano |
| Last Election3: | 5 seats, |
| Seats3: | 6 |
| Seat Change3: | 1 |
| Popular Vote3: | 152,155 |
| Percentage3: | 20.24% |
| Swing3: | 0.26 |
| Premier | |
| Before Election: | W. A. C. Bennett |
| Posttitle: | Premier after election |
| After Election: | W. A. C. Bennett |
The 1966 British Columbia general election was the 28th general election in the Province of British Columbia, Canada. It was held to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. The election was called on August 5, 1966 and held on September 12, 1966. The new legislature met for the first time on January 24, 1967.
The conservative Social Credit Party was re-elected with a majority in the legislature to a sixth term in government. It increased its share of the popular vote by close to five percentage points to over 45%, and winning the same number of seats (33) as in the previous election.
The opposition New Democratic Party also increased its share of the popular vote by over five percentage points, but won only two additional seats.
The Liberal Party won about 20% of the popular vote, and one additional seat, for a total of six.
The Progressive Conservative Party was virtually wiped out: it nominated only three candidates (down from 44 in the previous election), and its share of the popular vote fell from over 11% to a negligible amount.
An Act was passed in 1966 providing for an increase of seats from 52 to 55, upon the next election.[1] The following changes were made:
| Abolished ridings | New ridings | |
|---|---|---|
| Renaming of districts | ||
| Reduction of multi-member district | ||
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| Merger of districts | ||
| Reorganization of districts | ||
| Division of districts | ||
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|-! colspan=2 rowspan=2 | Political party! rowspan=2 | Party leader! colspan=4 | MLAs! colspan=4 | Votes|-! Candidates!1963!1966!±!#! ±!%! ± (pp)|style="text-align:left;" |W.A.C. Bennett| 55 || 33 || 33 || || 342,751 || 52,328 || 45.59 || 4.76 |style="text-align:left;" |Bob Strachan| 55 || 14 || 16 || 2 || 252,753 || 16,251 || 33.62 || 5.82|style="text-align:left;" |Ray Perrault| 53 || 5 || 6 || 1 || 152,155 || 41,208 || 20.24 || 0.26|style="text-align:left;" || 3 || – || – || – || 1,409 || 107,681 || 0.18 || 11.09| || 6 || – || – || – || 1,097 || 248 || 0.14 || 0.05| || 6 || – || – || – || 1,711 || 1,421 || 0.23 || 0.20|-! colspan="3" style="text-align:left;" | Total| 178| 52! colspan="2"| 55! colspan="2"|751,876! colspan="2"| 100.00%|-| colspan="7" style="text-align:left;" | Rejected ballots| 7,056 ||924| colspan="2"||-| colspan="7" style="text-align:left;" | Actual voters who voted| 596,716 ||11,956| 68.28% || 1.43|-| colspan="7" style="text-align:left;" | Registered voters| 873,927 ||787| colspan="2"||}
| Riding | Winning party | Votes | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | 1963 | Party | Votes | Share | Margin # | Margin % | NDP | Lib | PC | Total | ||||||
| Alberni | NDP | SC | 6,039 | 55.55% | 1,718 | 15.80% | 6,039 | 4,321 | 511 | – | – | – | 10,871 | |||
| Atlin | NDP | NDP | 572 | 59.71% | 311 | 32.47% | 261 | 572 | 125 | – | – | – | 958 | |||
| Boundary-Similkameen | New | SC | 6,547 | 55.44% | 2,878 | 24.37% | 6,547 | 3,669 | 1,594 | – | – | – | 11,810 | |||
| Burnaby-Edmonds | New | NDP | 5,748 | 48.71% | 1,118 | 9.48% | 4,630 | 5,748 | 1,423 | – | – | – | 11,801 | |||
| Burnaby North | New | NDP | 6,984 | 49.72% | 1,879 | 13.38% | 5,105 | 6,984 | 1,957 | – | – | – | 14,046 | |||
| Burnaby-Willingdon | New | NDP | 6,153 | 44.47% | 524 | 3.78% | 5,629 | 6,153 | 2,053 | – | – | – | 13,835 | |||
| Cariboo | SC | SC | 3,830 | 54.10% | 1,300 | 18.36% | 3,830 | 2,530 | 719 | – | – | – | 7,079 | |||
| Chilliwack | SC | SC | 7,703 | 63.17% | 4,622 | 37.91% | 7,703 | 3,081 | 1,411 | – | – | – | 12,195 | |||
| Columbia River | SC | SC | 1,563 | 58.45% | 929 | 34.74% | 1,563 | 477 | 634 | – | – | – | 2,674 | |||
| Comox | SC | SC | 5,449 | 49.39% | 1,140 | 10.34% | 5,449 | 4,309 | 1,276 | – | – | – | 11,033 | |||
| Coquitlam | New | NDP | 9,517 | 55.20% | 3,452 | 20.02% | 6,065 | 9,517 | 1,658 | – | – | – | 17,240 | |||
| Cowichan-Malahat | New | NDP | 5,646 | 52.08% | 1,234 | 11.38% | 4,412 | 5,646 | 783 | – | – | – | 10,841 | |||
| Delta | New | SC | 7,768 | 46.46% | 1,690 | 10.11% | 7,768 | 6,078 | 1,954 | 921 | – | – | 16,721 | |||
| Dewdney | NDP | SC | 6,507 | 53.42% | 1,979 | 16.25% | 6,507 | 4,528 | 1,146 | – | – | – | 12,181 | |||
| Esquimalt | SC | SC | 6,075 | 53.35% | 2,630 | 23.10% | 6,075 | 3,445 | 1,867 | – | – | – | 11,387 | |||
| Fort George | SC | SC | 6,282 | 60.42% | 3,480 | 33.47% | 6,282 | 2,802 | 1,313 | – | – | – | 10,397 | |||
| Kamloops | SC | SC | 5,753 | 52.35% | 2,516 | 22.90% | 5,753 | 3,237 | 2,000 | – | – | – | 10,990 | |||
| Kootenay | New | NDP | 3,605 | 40.98% | 535 | 6.09% | 3,070 | 3,605 | 2,123 | – | – | – | 8,798 | |||
| Langley | New | SC | 7,206 | 58.28% | 3,307 | 26.75% | 7,206 | 3,899 | 1,260 | – | – | – | 12,365 | |||
| Mackenzie | NDP | SC | 4,945 | 52.68% | 1,359 | 14.47% | 4,945 | 3,586 | 855 | – | – | – | 9,386 | |||
| Nanaimo | New | NDP | 5,625 | 47.99% | 45 | 0.38% | 5,580 | 5,625 | 516 | – | – | – | 11,721 | |||
| Nelson-Creston | SC | SC | 4,683 | 59.29% | 2,359 | 29.87% | 4,683 | 2,324 | 892 | – | – | – | 7,899 | |||
| New Westminster | NDP | NDP | 5,751 | 44.65% | 199 | 1.54% | 5,552 | 5,751 | 1,577 | – | – | – | 12,880 | |||
| North Okanagan | SC | SC | 3,841 | 48.59% | 1,433 | 18.13% | 3,841 | 1,535 | 2,408 | – | – | 121 | 7,905 | |||
| North Peace River | SC | SC | 1,799 | 48.44% | 1,216 | 32.74% | 1,799 | 511 | 565 | – | – | 839[2] | 3,714 | |||
| North Vancouver-Capilano | New | Lib | 6,426 | 51.49% | 2,450 | 19.63% | 3,976 | 1,816 | 6,426 | 261 | – | – | 12,479 | |||
| North Vancouver-Seymour | New | Lib | 5,301 | 39.61% | 694 | 5.18% | 4,607 | 3,137 | 5,301 | 227 | 110 | – | 13,382 | |||
| Oak Bay | Lib | Lib | 8,118 | 54.48% | 2,310 | 15.51% | 5,808 | 976 | 8,118 | – | – | – | 14,902 | |||
| Omineca | SC | SC | 2,337 | 70.16% | 1,343 | 40.32% | 2,337 | 994 | – | – | – | – | 3,331 | |||
| Prince Rupert | SC | SC | 2,647 | 52.90% | 834 | 16.67% | 2,647 | 1,813 | 544 | – | – | – | 5,004 | |||
| Revelstoke-Slocan | New | NDP | 2,158 | 44.67% | 138 | 2.86% | 2,020 | 2,158 | 548 | – | – | 105 | 4,831 | |||
| Richmond | New | SC | 6,521 | 43.33% | 372 | 2.48% | 6,521 | 6,149 | 2,381 | – | – | – | 15,051 | |||
| Rossland-Trail | SC | SC | 5,600 | 55.93% | 3,147 | 31.43% | 5,600 | 2,453 | 1,960 | – | – | – | 10,013 | |||
| New | SC | 7,237 | 50.05% | 3,416 | 23.62% | 7,237 | 3,821 | 3,401 | – | – | – | 14,459 | ||||
| Shuswap | SC | SC | 3,995 | 54.07% | 1,400 | 18.95% | 3,995 | 2,595 | 760 | – | 39 | – | 7,389 | |||
| Skeena | SC | SC | 3,046 | 55.39% | 1,304 | 23.71% | 3,046 | 1,742 | 711 | – | – | – | 5,499 | |||
| South Okanagan | SC | SC | 8,747 | 73.15% | 6,811 | 56.96% | 8,747 | 1,936 | 1,274 | – | – | – | 11,957 | |||
| South Peace River | SC | SC | 2,585 | 59.78% | 1,697 | 39.24% | 2,585 | 851 | 888 | – | – | – | 4,324 | |||
| Surrey | New | NDP | 7,039 | 48.20% | 785 | 5.38% | 6,254 | 7,039 | 1,234 | – | 77 | – | 14,604 | |||
| West Vancouver-Howe Sound | New | Lib | 8,346 | 52.76% | 2,847 | 18.00% | 5,499 | 1,975 | 8,346 | – | – | – | 15,820 | |||
| Yale-Lillooet | New | NDP | 3,885 | 55.37% | 754 | 10.74% | 3,131 | 3,885 | – | – | – | – | 7,016 | |||
= open seat
= turnout is above provincial average
= winning candidate was in previous Legislature
= incumbent had switched allegiance
= previously incumbent in another riding
= not incumbent; was previously elected to the Legislature
= incumbency arose from byelection gain
= other incumbents renominated
= multiple candidates
| Riding | Winning party | Votes | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | MLAs | 1963 | 1966 | NDP | Lib | PC | Total | ||||
| Vancouver-Burrard | 2 | 7,584 | 9,849 | 3,190 | – | – | – | 40,386 | |||
| 7,584 | 9,498 | 2,681 | – | – | – | ||||||
| Vancouver Centre | 2 | 8,157 | 7,257 | 4,147 | – | 253 | 144 | 38,570 | |||
| 7,938 | 6,871 | 3,803 | – | – | – | ||||||
| Vancouver East | 2 | 8,644 | 12,502 | 1,637 | – | 377 | – | 45,521 | |||
| 8,593 | 12,185 | 1,583 | – | – | – | ||||||
| Vancouver-Little Mountain | 2 | New | 12,380[3] | 8,620 | 4,681 | – | – | – | 50,040 | ||
| 11,566 | 8,523 | 4,270 | – | – | – | ||||||
| Vancouver-Point Grey | 2 | 11,494 | 2,934 | 17,400 | – | – | – | 57,472 | |||
| 9,284 | 2,853 | 13,507 | – | – | – | ||||||
| Vancouver South | 2 | New | 12,259[4] | 9,067 | 5,698 | – | – | 502 | 53,784 | ||
| 11,740[5] | 8,843 | 5,675 | – | – | – | ||||||
| Victoria City | 2 | 13,068 | 5,304 | 4,774 | – | 241 | – | 45,315 | |||
| 12,156 | 5,175 | 4,597 | – | – | – | ||||||
= winning candidate