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 Parliament

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

	Member	Electoral district	Party	First elected / previously elected	No.# of term(s)
	Robert Evans Skelly	Alberni	NDP	1972	2nd term
	Frank Arthur Calder	Atlin	Social Credit[a]	1949, 1960	9th term*
	James J. (Jim) Hewitt	Boundary-Similkameen	Social Credit	1975	1st term
	Raymond L. Loewen	Burnaby-Edmonds	Social Credit	1975	1st term
	Eileen Dailly	Burnaby North	NDP	1966	4th term
	Elwood Neal Veitch	Burnaby-Willingdon	Social Credit	1975	1st term
	Alexander Vaughan Fraser	Cariboo	Social Credit	1969	3rd term
	Harvey Schroeder	Chilliwack	Social Credit	1972	2nd term
	James Roland Chabot	Columbia River	Social Credit	1963	5th term
	Karen Elizabeth Sanford	Comox	NDP	1972	2nd term
	George Herman Kerster	Coquitlam	Social Credit	1975	1st term
	Barbara Brookman Wallace	Cowichan-Malahat	NDP	1975	1st term
	Kenneth Walter Davidson	Delta	Social Credit	1975	1st term
	George Mussallem	Dewdney	Social Credit	1966, 1975	3rd term*
	Lyle Benjamin James Kahl	Esquimalt	Social Credit	1975	1st term
	Howard John Lloyd	Fort George	Social Credit	1975	1st term
	Rafe Kenneth Mair	Kamloops	Social Credit	1975	1st term
	George Wayne Haddad	Kootenay	Social Credit	1975	1st term
	Robert Howard McClelland	Langley	Social Credit	1972	2nd term
	Don Lockstead	Mackenzie	NDP	1972	2nd term
	David Daniel Stupich	Nanaimo	NDP	1963, 1972	4th term*
	Lorne Nicolson	Nelson-Creston	NDP	1972	2nd term
	Dennis Geoffrey Cocke	New Westminster	NDP	1969	3rd term
	Patricia Jordan	North Okanagan	Social Credit	1966	4th term
	Dean Edward Smith	North Peace River	Social Credit	1966	4th term
	Gordon Fulerton Gibson	North Vancouver-Capilano	Liberal	1974	2nd term
	John (Jack) Davis	North Vancouver-Seymour	Social Credit	1975	1st term
	George Scott Wallace	Oak Bay	Progressive Conservative	1969[b]	3rd term
	Victor Albert Stephens (1978)			1978	1st term
	Jack Joseph Kempf	Omineca	Social Credit	1975	1st term
	Graham Lea	Prince Rupert	NDP	1972	2nd term
	William Stewart King	Revelstoke-Slocan	NDP	1968, 1972	3rd term*
	James Arthur Nielsen	Richmond	Social Credit	1975	1st term
	Christopher D'Arcy	Rossland-Trail	NDP	1972	2nd term
	Hugh Austin Curtis	Saanich and the Islands	Social Credit[c]	1972	2nd term
	Leonard Bawtree	Shuswap	Social Credit	1975	1st term
	Cyril Morley Shelford	Skeena	Social Credit	1952,[d] 1975	8th term*
	William Richards Bennett	South Okanagan	Social Credit	1973	2nd term
	Donald McGray Phillips	South Peace River	Social Credit	1966, 1972	3rd term*
	William Nick (Bill) Vander Zalm	Surrey	Social Credit	1975	1st term
	Rosemary Brown	Vancouver-Burrard	NDP	1972	2nd term
	Norman Levi			1968,[e] 1972	3rd term*
	Emery Oakland Barnes	Vancouver Centre	NDP	1972	2nd term
	Gary Lauk			1972	2nd term
	Alexander Barrett MacDonald	Vancouver East	NDP	1960	6th term
	Robert Arthur Williams			1966	4th term
	David Barrett (1976)			1960,[f] 1976	6th term*
	Grace Mary McCarthy	Vancouver-Little Mountain	Social Credit	1966, 1975	3rd term*
	Evan Maurice Wolfe			1966,[g] 1975	3rd term*
	Garde Basil Gardom	Vancouver-Point Grey	Social Credit	1966[h]	4th term
	Patrick Lucey McGeer			1962[h]	6th term
	Charles Stephen Rogers	Vancouver South	Social Credit	1975	1st term
	William Gerald Strongman			1975	1st term
	Charles Frederick Barber	Victoria	NDP	1975	1st term
	Robert Samuel Bawlf		Social Credit	1975	1st term
	Louis Allan Williams	West Vancouver-Howe Sound	Social Credit[h]	1966	4th term
	Thomas Manville Waterland	Yale-Lillooet	Social Credit	1975	1st term

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. First elected as a Social Credit candidate
3. First elected as a Progressive Conservative
4. Omineca
5. Vancouver South
6. Dewdney
7. Vancouver Centre
8. First elected as a Liberal