The 1903 British Columbia general election was the tenth general election for the Province of British Columbia, Canada. It was held to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. The election was called on September 5, 1903, and held on October 3, 1903. The new legislature met for the first time on November 26, 1903.
This was the first election in British Columbia that was fought by political parties. Prior to this election, British Columbia politics were non-partisan.
The first election was dominated by the Conservative and Liberal parties, which were affiliated with existing parties at the federal level. See Conservative Party of Canada and Liberal Party of Canada.
The Conservative Party won over 46.4% of the popular vote and a slim majority of the seats in the legislature.
Unlike in the previous BC general election, in 1903 of the 42 MLAs 31 were elected in single member districts. There were also one 2-member districts and one 4-member district and one 5-member district. Each voter could cast as many votes as there were seats to fill in the district.
Results by party
Notes:
* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.
1 The Conservative Party and the Liberal Party each elected one candidate by acclamation.
2 There was no provincial "Labour Party" as such. Each of the three Electoral Districts with a Labour candidate (Nanaimo, Slocan, and Vancouver City) had a local, autonomous Labour Party. As well, some Liberal candidates appear to have run on a "Liberal-Labour" platform (Atlin, Victoria and Ymir).