British Columbia general election, 1996

← 1991

May 28, 1996

2001 →

75 seats of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia
38 seats were needed for a majority

Turnout

59.11%

4.92 pp

	First party	Second party

Leader	Glen Clark	Gordon Campbell
Party	New Democratic	Liberal
Leader since	1996	1993
Leader's seat	Vancouver Kingsway	Vancouver-Point Grey
Last election	51 seats, 40.71%	17 seats, 33.25%
Seats won	39	33
Seat change	12	16
Popular vote	624,395	661,929
Percentage	39.45	41.82
Swing	1.26	8.58

	Third party	Fourth party

Leader	Jack Weisgerber	Gordon Wilson
Party	Reform	Progressive Democrat
Leader since	1995	1993
Leader's seat	Peace River South	Powell River-Sunshine Coast
Last election	0 seats, 0.18%	pre-creation
Seats won	2	1
Seat change	2	1
Popular vote	146,734	90,797
Percentage	9.27	5.74
Swing	9.09	5.74

Premier before election

Glen Clark
New Democratic

Premier-designate

Glen Clark
New Democratic

The British Columbia general election of 1996 was the thirty sixth 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 30, 1996, and held on May 28, 1996. Voter turnout was 59.1 per cent of all eligible voters.

New Democratic Party leader and provincial premier Mike Harcourt had resigned as the result of a fundraising scandal involving one of the members of his caucus. Glen Clark was chosen by the party to replace Harcourt. Clark led the party to a second majority government, defeating the Liberal Party of Gordon Campbell. Campbell had become leader of the Liberal Party after Gordon Wilson had been forced out of the position because of his relationship with another Liberal member of the legislature, Judi Tyabji.

After Wilson was defeated by Campbell in the convention to choose a new leader, he and Tyabji left the Liberal Party to establish the Progressive Democratic Alliance. Wilson was able to win re-election, but Tyabji was not, going down to defeat with all of the other candidates fielded by the new party.

The once-dominant Social Credit Party collapsed. Between 1991 and 1996, four of its members defected to Reform BC and two other seats were lost in by-elections. The remaining Socred MLA retired before the election, leaving the party with no incumbents. Party leader Larry Gillanders withdrew from the race while the campaign was in progress, saying that all right wing parties should unite to topple the ruling NDP. The Socreds won only 0.4 percent of the vote and were completely shut out of the legislature. The party would never elect another MLA, though it would continue to exist in desultory fashion until 2013.

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