British Columbia general election, 2001

British Columbia riding map showing the winning parties and their vote percentage of each riding.

The British Columbia general election of 2001 was the 37th provincial election in the Province of British Columbia, Canada. It was held to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. The election was called on April 18, 2001, and held on May 16, 2001.

The incumbent New Democratic Party had been rocked by scandal that had led to the resignation of leader Glen Clark. Clark was replaced by the well-respected Ujjal Dosanjh. Dosanjh was not, however, able to restore the party's public image, and the NDP was soundly defeated by the Liberal Party, led by former Vancouver mayor Gordon Campbell. The Liberals won over 57% of the popular vote, and all but two of the 79 seats in the provincial legislature.

The NDP, on the other hand, lost almost half of the share of the popular vote that it had won in the 1996 election, and did not reach the 4 seats required for official status of caucus in the BC Legislature.

The British Columbia Unity Party had been created as a union of conservative parties. Initially, Reform BC, the Social Credit, the British Columbia Party, and the Family Coalition Party had joined under the "BC Unity" umbrella. By the time the election was called, however, only the Family Coalition Party and a large majority of Reform BC segments had remained in the BC Unity coalition. The other parties had withdrawn to continue independently. Ron Gamble, sometime leader and sometime president of the renewed Reform BC continued his opposition to conservative mergers, consistently proclaiming a "Say No to Chris Delaney & BC Unity" policy, until Unity's eventual collapse in 2004 after a failed second attempt at a merger with BC Conservatives. The result of all this was a massive landslide win by the BC Liberals, the likes of which had not been seen in some time. Gordon Campbell's Liberals won 77 of the 79 seats available.

Results

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
Party		Party leader	# of candidates	1996	Elected	% Change	#	%	Change	BC Liberal	Gordon Campbell	79	33	77	+133.3%	916,888	57.62%	+15.80%	New Democrats	Ujjal Dosanjh	79	39	2	-94.9%	343,156	21.56%	-17.89%	Green	Adriane Carr	72	-	-	-	197,231	12.39%	+10.40%	Unity	Chris Delaney	56	-	-	-	51,426	3.23%	+2.97%	Marijuana	Brian Taylor	79	*	-	*	51,206	3.22%		colspan="2"\|Independent	30	-	-	-	14,588	0.92%	+0.28%	Reform	9	2	-	-100%	3,439	0.22%	-9.05%	All Nations	6	*	-	*	3,380	0.21%		Conservative	Barry Chilton	6	-	-	-	2,417	0.15%	+0.09%	Social Credit	2	-	-	-	1,948	0.12%	-0.27%	BC Action	5	*	-	*	1,636	0.10%	*	No affiliation	6	*	-	*	727	0.05%		People's Front	11	*	-	*	720	0.05%		Western Reform	1	*	-	*	621	0.04%		Citizens Alliance Now	2	*	-	*	584	0.04%		Council of British Columbians	2	*	-	*	399	0.03%		Communist	4	-	-	-	381	0.02%	+0.01%	Freedom	2	*	-	*	240	0.02%		Party of Citizens....	2	*	-	*	147	0.01%		Patriot	1	*	-	*	82	0.01%	*	Citizens Commonwealth	4	*	-	*	49	x		Central	3	*	-	*	41	x	*
Total			456	75	79	+5.3%	1,591,306	100%

Notes

x - less than 0.005% of the popular vote.

* The party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

Unity Party results are calculated relative to Family Coalition Party results.