1871 British Columbia general election

The election was held from October through December 1871, and was conducted by means of a show of hands on nomination day and, if required, an open poll book on polling day. There were no organized political parties.

Each voter could cast as many votes as there were seats to fill. Where multiple members were elected, the seats were filled through plurality block voting; elsewhere, first-past-the-post voting was used.[1]

• Votes: 3,804
• Candidates: 46
• Members: 25

Vancouver Island

• Upper Island 310 votes, four seats (77.5 votes/seat)
  • Comox: 24 votes (24 votes/seat)
  • Cowichan: 196 votes (2 seats 98 votes/seat 49 voters/seat)
  • Nanaimo: 90 votes (90 votes/seat)
• "Greater Victoria" 2,074 votes, eight seats (259.25 votes/seat):
  • Victoria: 377 votes (2 seats 188.5 votes/seat 94.25 voters/seat)
  • Victoria City: 1,515 (4 seats 378.75 votes/seat 169.3525 voters/seat)
  • Esquimalt: 182 (2 seats 91 votes/seat 45.5 voters/seat)

Mainland:

• Interior 1,907 votes, ten seats (190.7 votes/seat):
  • Cariboo: 785 votes (3 seats 261.67 votes/seat)
  • Kootenay: 39 votes (2 seats 19.5 votes/seat)
  • Lillooet: 102 votes (2 seats 51 votes/seat
  • Yale: 171 votes (3 seats 57 votes/seat)
• Lower Mainland 686 votes (3 seats 228.67 votes/seat:
  • New Westminster: 323 votes (2 seats 161.5 votes/seat)
  • New Westminster City: unknown at this time (vote was by acclamation)_

Note that these figures refer to votes actually cast, not the population per se nor the total of the potential voters' list.

Note: There is no arrangement to the ridings and members, other than by rough alphabetical order, as all were technically independents. Actual seating of the House or political alignments are not represented.

Two sets of byelections were held to confirm appointments to the Executive Council (cabinet), as was the custom in earlier times. Ministerial candidates in this series of byelections were all confirmed by acclamation (so there were no actual polling dates). These byelections were:

• Esquimalt - Alexander Rocke Robertson, acclaimed November 28, 1871
• New Westminster City - Henry Holbrook acclaimed November 28, 1871
• Cariboo - George Anthony Boomer Walkem acclaimed February 23, 1872
• Comox - John Ash acclaimed, January 11, 1873
• Victoria City - Robert Beaven acclaimed January 6, 1873
• New Westminster - William James Armstrong acclaimed March 21, 1873

Other byelections were also held due to deaths and other appointments; all were contested:

• Cariboo - John George Barnston was elected to replace Cornelius Booth who was appointed to be Clerk of the Bench (provincial court) for the district of Kootenay on April 19, 1872
• Lillooet - William Saul was elected December 21, 1872 to replace Andrew Thomas Jamieson, who had died on October 31, 1872
• Victoria - November 26, 1874. The byelection was due to resignations February 9, 1874 of A. Bunster and Amor De Cosmos upon winning seats in the federal election January 22, 1874 (in Vancouver and Victoria federal ridings, respectively). William Archibald Robertson and William Fraser Tolmie won the vacant seats.
• Lillooet - November 17, 1874. On September 26, 1874, MLAs William Saul and Thomas Basil Humphreys jointly resigned "over a dispute between the two gentlemen as to which represents the popular feeling of the district" (Victoria Colonist September 29, 1874). Humphreys was re-elected and William M. Brown was elected to replace William Saul in a tight three-way race.

Note: Government/Opposition status applies to candidate at time of election in 1871, not at time of dissolution in 1875.

• In the Sea of Sterile Mountains: The Chinese in British Columbia, Joseph Morton, J.J. Douglas, Vancouver (1974). Despite its title, a fairly thorough account of the politicians and electoral politics in early BC.