Base → Elections → Historic vote splittings → British Columbia: Cmte. of 100, 1924:  LCBC  ↔  PROV 

It should have been the blues!
(But instead they had the blues)

by Maurice Y. Michaud (he/him)

The Conservatives in British Columbia could not have picked a worse time to have a fight in the family.

In January 1923, a group of Conservative dissidents known as the “Committee of 100” formed the Provincial Party of British Columbia. It was led by Alexander McRae and also had Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper on its side. They believed that the Liberal government of John Oliver was corrupt, but that previous Conservative administrations had been just as bad. They opposed patronage, Oriental labour, and the “temporary” income tax that had been introduced during the War.

The reason why the timing for such infighting among Conservatives was so bad is that clearly many British Columbians shared the dissidents’ views. What’s more, the Liberals had been in power since 1916 and the time for the usual alternance of power had likely come. But rather than bringing enough conservative-minded people to his side, McRae only managed to split the family in half, letting the Liberals slip in to form a third consecutive government, although this time a minority. Even he didn’t manage to win one of the six seats in Vancouver City.

British Columbia

16 → 1924 :: 20 Jun 1924 — 17 Jul 1928 — Minority  BCLP  Summary Government Opposition Lost votes Party Votes Seats Party Votes Seats Party Votes # % % # # % % # # % Parliament: 16    Minority Majority=25  Ab.Maj.: -2  G.Maj.: -2 Population [1921]: 524,582 Eligible: 225,675  Particip.: 65.91% Votes: 422,538  Lost: 83,436 Seats: 48   1 seat = 2.08% ↳ Elec.Sys.:  FPTP: 38  PAL: 10   ↳ By acclamation: 0 (0.00%) Plurality: Votes  BCLP  Seats  BCLP  Plurality: ↳ +6,558 (+1.89%) Plurality: ↳ Seats: +6 (+12.50%) Position2: Votes  LCBC  Seats  LCBC  Candidacies: 168 (✓ 48)   m: 162 (✓ 47)   f: 6 (✓ 1)  BCLP  46   LCBC  47   PROV  45   CLP  17   OTH  10   IND  3    BCLP  108,323 31.34 47.92 23  LCBC   PROV   CLP   OTH  101,765 83,517 43,408 2,089 29.45 24.17 12.56 0.60 35.42 6.25 6.25 4.17 17 3 3 2  OTH   IND   REJ   ABS  3,984 2,520 76,932 —— 1.16 0.73 18.21 —— Difference since the previous general election: +1 seat  CLP  →  SP  1 (✓ 0)   CLP  16 (✓ 3)  OTH  →  ILIB  5 (✓ 2)   ICON  4   IFRM  1  !!!  16 (33.33%)

Indeed, 53.62% of the votes were blue but divided into two camps and yielded 20 of the 48 seats in the legislature. On the other hand, 31.34% of the votes were Liberal red and netted them 23 seats. There was only a difference of 5.28% between the blue camps, yet the “old” camp got nearly six times as many seats of the “new” camp. Surely vote splitting prevented the blues from forming government...

To find the answer, let’s:

Thus we could conclude that there would have been 18 differences.

But it should have been even worse than that for the Liberals. Vancouver City where McRae ran was one of two ridings at the time that elected more than one member. (The other was Victoria City, and the “old blues” picked up all four seats — even taking Premier Oliver’s and forcing him to run in a by-election two months later.) So let’s take a look at how many votes the Conservatives and Provincials received in Vancouver City, and imagine if they had stood as united “blue” candidates.

United we win. Divided we lose.
McRae soon after rejoined the Conservatives and the Provincial Party disbanded shortly afterwards.