British Columbia general election, 1937

The British Columbia general election of 1937 was the nineteenth 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 April 14, 1937, and held on June 1, 1937. The new legislature met for the first time on October 26, 1937.

The governing Liberal Party, despite winning only 37% of the popular vote, benefited from the split in the vote between the Conservative Party and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, and won a solid majority of the seats in the legislature.

The rift in the Conservative Party that led to its decision not to nominate candidates in the 1933 election had been resolved, and the party was able to form the official opposition.

The Conservatives and CCF each won about 29% of the vote, and only 8 seats and 7 seats, respectively. The remaining two seats were won by Labour and Independent candidates.

Results

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
				1933	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change
	Liberal	Thomas Dufferin Pattullo	48	34	31	-8.8%	156,074	37.34%	-4.40%
	Conservative^1	Frank Porter Patterson	43	2	8	+300%	119,521	28.60%	+24.55%
	Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.		46	7	7	-	119,400	28.57%	-2.96%
	Independent		11	2	1	-50.0%	7,341	1.76%	-5.98%
	Labour		2	1	1	-	1,787	0.43%	-0.19%
	Social Constructive	Robert Connell	14	*	-	*	8,086	1.93%	*
	Social Credit League	Andrew Henry Jukes	18	*	-	*	4,812	1.15%	*
	Communist		1	*	-	*	567	0.14%	*
	Socialist		2	*	-	*	287	0.07%	*
	Financial Justice		1	*	-	*	54	0.01%	*
Total			186	47	48	+2.1%	417,929	100%
Source: Elections BC

Notes:

* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

¹ Results compared to those of Unionist Party of British Columbia in previous election.

Results by riding

Results of British Columbia general election, 1937
Government				Opposition
	Member	Riding & party		Riding & party		Member
	George Sharratt Pearson	Alberni-Nanaimo Liberal			Chilliwack Conservative	Leslie Harvey Eyres
	William James Asselstine	Atlin Liberal			Dewdney Conservative	Frank Porter Patterson
	Louis LeBourdais	Cariboo Liberal			EsquimaltConservative	Elmer Victor Finland
	Thomas King	Columbia Liberal			The Islands Conservative	Macgregor Fullarton MacIntosh
	Frank Mitchell MacPherson	Cranbrook Liberal			Vancouver-Point Grey Conservative	Royal Lethington Maitland^2
	Henry George Thomas Perry	Fort George Liberal				James Alexander Paton
	Robert Henry Carson	Kamloops Liberal			Victoria City Conservative	Herbert Anscomb
	Ezra Churchill Henniger	Grand Forks-Greenwood Liberal				Joseph Douglas Hunter
	Charles Sidney Leary	Kaslo-Slocan Liberal			Burnaby Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Ernest Edward Winch
	George Matheson Murray	Lillooet Liberal			Comox Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Colin Cameron
	John Melvin Bryan, Sr.	Mackenzie Liberal			Cowichan-Newcastle Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Samuel Guthrie
	Frank Putnam	Nelson-Creston Liberal			Delta Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Leonard Alec Shepherd
	Arthur Wellesley Gray	New Westminster Liberal			North Vancouver Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Dorothy Gretchen Steeves
	Kenneth Cattanach MacDonald	North Okanagan Liberal			Vancouver East Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	James Lyle Telford
	Mark Matthew Connelly	Omineca Liberal				Harold Edward Winch
	Glen Everton Braden	Peace River Liberal			Fernie Labour (Party)	Thomas Aubert Uphill
	Thomas Dufferin Pattullo ^1	Prince Rupert Liberal			Salmon Arm Independent	Rolf Wallgren Bruhn
	Harry Johnston	Revelstoke Liberal
	Richard Ronald Burns	Rossland-Trail Liberal
	Norman William Whittaker	Saanich Liberal
	Charles Herbert Percy Tupper	Similkameen Liberal
	Edward Tourtellotte Kenney	Skeena Liberal
	Cecil Robert Bull	South Okanagan Liberal
	John Howard Forester	Vancouver-Burrard Liberal
	Helen Douglas Smith
	Fred Crone	Vancouver Centre Liberal
	Gordon Sylvester Wismer
	George Moir Weir	Vancouver-Point Grey Liberal
	John Hart	Victoria City Liberal
	William Thomas Straith
	John Joseph Alban Gillis	Yale Liberal
	^1 Premier-Elect and Incumbent
	^2 Leader of the Opposition
Source: Elections BC

See also

• List of British Columbia political parties