British Columbia Social Credit Party leadership elections

rdf:langString British Columbia Social Credit Party leadership elections

rdf:langString The British Columbia Social Credit Party was a conservative political party in the Province of British Columbia, Canada. The provincial Social Credit movement was divided in its early years and was largely under the influence of the Alberta Social Credit League and did not have a functional leadership before 1952. The 1952 leadership convention was held when the party was largely dominated by the Alberta leadership of the national social credit movement. Alberta Premier Ernest Manning hand-picked Ernest George Hansell to lead the British Columbia party into the election despite the fact that Hansell was an Alberta politician. W.A.C. Bennett was chosen party leader by Social Credit MLAs following the election. In 1973, the party elected W.A.C. Bennett's son, Bill Bennett, on the first ballot. All of the party's leadership conventions before 1993 were delegated, i.e., local party riding associations selected delegates to attend a convention and elect a leader by secret ballot. The 1993 leadership election was determined by a "one-member, one-vote" system, using mail-in preferential ballots. The 1994 leadership election used the same system, but did not incorporate preferential balloting as there were only two candidates.