31st Parliament of British Columbia

The 31st Legislative Assembly of British Columbia sat from 1976 to 1979. The members were elected in the British Columbia general election held in December 1975.[1] The Social Credit Party led by Bill Bennett formed the government.[2] The New Democratic Party (NDP) led by William Stewart King formed the official opposition. Dave Barrett had lost his seat in the election; he was reelected in a by-election held in June 1976 and resumed his role as party leader.[3]

Dean Smith served as speaker for the assembly until 1978 when he resigned as speaker. Harvey Schroeder replaced Smith as speaker in 1979.[4]

Members of the 31st General Assembly

The following members were elected to the assembly in 1975:[1]

	Member	Electoral district	Party	First elected / previously elected
	Robert Evans Skelly	Alberni	NDP	1972
	Frank Arthur Calder	Atlin	Social Credit	1949[a], 1960[b]
	James J. (Jim) Hewitt	Boundary-Similkameen	Social Credit	1975
	Raymond L. Loewen	Burnaby-Edmonds	Social Credit	1975
	Eileen Dailly	Burnaby North	NDP	1966
	Elwood Neal Veitch	Burnaby-Willingdon	Social Credit	1975
	Alexander Vaughan Fraser	Cariboo	Social Credit	1969
	Harvey Schroeder	Chilliwack	Social Credit	1972
	James Roland Chabot	Columbia River	Social Credit	1963
	Karen Elizabeth Sanford	Comox	NDP	1972
	George Herman Kerster	Coquitlam	Social Credit	1975
	Barbara Brookman Wallace	Cowichan-Malahat	NDP	1975
	Kenneth Walter Davidson	Delta	Social Credit	1975
	George Mussallem	Dewdney	Social Credit	1966, 1975
	Lyle Benjamin James Kahl	Esquimalt	Social Credit	1975
	Howard John Lloyd	Fort George	Social Credit	1975
	Rafe Kenneth Mair	Kamloops	Social Credit	1975
	George Wayne Haddad	Kootenay	Social Credit	1975
	Robert Howard McClelland	Langley	Social Credit	1972
	Don Lockstead	Mackenzie	NDP	1972
	David Daniel Stupich	Nanaimo	NDP	1963, 1972
	Lorne Nicolson	Nelson-Creston	NDP	1972
	Dennis Geoffrey Cocke	New Westminster	NDP	1969
	Patricia Jordan	North Okanagan	Social Credit	1966
	Dean Edward Smith	North Peace River	Social Credit	1966
	Gordon Fulerton Gibson	North Vancouver-Capilano	Liberal	1974
	John (Jack) Davis	North Vancouver-Seymour	Social Credit	1975
	George Scott Wallace	Oak Bay	Progressive Conservative	1969[c]
	Victor Albert Stephens		Progressive Conservative	1978
	Jack Joseph Kempf	Omineca	Social Credit	1975
	Graham Lea	Prince Rupert	NDP	1972
	William Stewart King	Revelstoke-Slocan	NDP	1968, 1972
	James Arthur Nielsen	Richmond	Social Credit	1975
	Christopher D'Arcy	Rossland-Trail	NDP	1972
	Hugh Austin Curtis	Saanich and the Islands	Social Credit	1972[d]
	Leonard Bawtree	Shuswap	Social Credit	1975
	Cyril Morley Shelford	Skeena	Social Credit	1952[e], 1975
	William Richards Bennett	South Okanagan	Social Credit	1973
	Donald McGray Phillips	South Peace River	Social Credit	1966, 1972
	William Nick (Bill) Vander Zalm	Surrey	Social Credit	1975
	Rosemary Brown	Vancouver-Burrard	NDP	1972
	Norman Levi			1968[f], 1972
	Emery Oakland Barnes	Vancouver Centre	NDP	1972
	Gary Lauk			1972
	Alexander Barrett MacDonald	Vancouver East	NDP	1960
	Robert Arthur Williams			1966
	David Barrett			1960[g], 1976
	Grace Mary McCarthy	Vancouver-Little Mountain	Social Credit	1966, 1975
	Evan Maurice Wolfe			1966[h], 1975
	Garde Basil Gardom	Vancouver-Point Grey	Social Credit	1966[i]
	Patrick Lucey McGeer			1962[j]
	Charles Stephen Rogers	Vancouver South	Social Credit	1975
	William Gerald Strongman			1975
	Charles Frederick Barber	Victoria	NDP	1975
	Robert Samuel Bawlf		Social Credit	1975
	Louis Allan Williams	West Vancouver-Howe Sound	Social Credit	1966[k]
	Thomas Manville Waterland	Yale-Lillooet	Social Credit	1975

Party standings

Affiliation		Members
	Social Credit	35
	New Democratic Party	18
	Liberal	1
	Progressive Conservative	1
Total		55
Government Majority		15

By-elections

By-elections were held to replace members for various reasons:[1]

Electoral district	Member elected	Party	Election date	Reason
Vancouver East	David Barrett	NDP	June 3, 1976	R.A. Williams resigned February 27, 1976, to provide seat for D. Barrett
Oak Bay	Victor Albert Stephens	Progressive Conservative	March 20, 1978	G.S. Wallace resigned December 31, 1977, to return to medical practice

Notes

• Two by-elections were called in 1979 for the ridings of North Vancouver-Seymour and North Vancouver-Capilano but they were cancelled when a 1979 general election was scheduled.

Notes

1. First elected as a CCF
2. Re-elected as a CCF
3. First elected as a Social Credit
4. First elected as a Progressive Conservative
5. Omineca
6. Vancouver South
7. Dewdney
8. Vancouver Centre
9. First elected as a Liberal
10. First elected as a Liberal
11. First elected as a Liberal

References

1. "Electoral History of British Columbia, 1871–1986" (PDF). Elections BC. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-06-13. Retrieved 2011-07-27.
2. "Premiers of British Columbia 1871-" (PDF). BC Legislature. Retrieved 2011-09-23.
3. "Leaders of the Opposition in British Columbia 1903-" (PDF). BC Legislature. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-02-20. Retrieved 2011-07-20.
4. "Speakers of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia 1872-" (PDF). BC Legislature. Retrieved 2011-09-23.