2017 British Columbia general election
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87 seats in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia 44 seats were needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Opinion polls | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 61.2% 5.9 pp | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Popular vote by riding. As this is an FPTP election, seat totals are not determined by popular vote, but instead via results by each riding. Click the map for more details. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 2017 British Columbia general election was held on May 9, 2017, to elect 87 members (MLAs) to the Legislative Assembly to serve in the 41st Parliament of the Canadian province of British Columbia. In the 40th Parliament prior to this general election, the British Columbia Liberal Party formed the government under the leadership of Christy Clark, while the British Columbia New Democratic Party (NDP), under the leadership of Adrian Dix and then John Horgan, formed the Official Opposition; the Green Party of British Columbia were also represented in the legislature with sole MLA and later leader Andrew Weaver.
It was the first election contested on a new electoral map completed in 2015, and the total number of constituencies had increased from 85 to 87. New districts were added in Richmond and Surrey, while the boundaries of 48 existing electoral districts were adjusted.
The election saw no party win a majority of seats for the first time since the 1952 election: the Liberals won 43 seats, the NDP won 41 seats and the Greens won three seats. From 1952 to 2017, especially in the 2005 to 2017 period, often a single party that had not received a majority of the votes cast had achieved a majority of seats and held power.
As no one party held a majority of seats, a working majority had to be forged. After a period of negotiating, on May 29 Green Party leaders agreed to provide confidence and supply to an NDP government. Clark meanwhile indicated she would remain in office and seek the confidence of the legislature. On June 29, the opposition MLAs voted against Clark's speech from the throne, and Lieutenant Governor Judith Guichon invited NDP leader Horgan to form a government. On July 18, Horgan became the new premier. The Greens maintained the NDP government in power, although Weaver and the other Green MLAs did not join the cabinet and were not given any official roles in the government.
The election was notable in that it marked the end of the Liberal majority government that had led the province since the 2001 election, and the first election in Canada at the federal or provincial level that saw more than one member of a Green party elected.