Delta (provincial electoral district)

Delta was the name of a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia based on the municipality of Delta at the mouth of the Fraser River between the city of Vancouver and the US border. It made its first appearance on the hustings in the election of 1903 and its last in the election of 1986, after which it was succeeded by Delta North and Delta South, which are the current ridings in the area.

History

Single-member district

Assembly	Years	Member
Riding created from Westminster-Delta
10th	1903–1907	John Oliver	Liberal
11th	1907–1909	John Oliver	Liberal
12th	1909–1912	Francis James Anderson MacKenzie	Conservative
13th	1912–1916
14th	1916–1920
15th	1920–1924	John Oliver	Liberal
16th	1924–1928	Alexander McDonald Paterson	Liberal
17th	1928–1933	John Walter Berry	Conservative
18th	1933–1937	Robert Swailes	CCF
19th	1937–1941	Leonard Alec Shepherd
20th	1941–1945	Leonard Alec Shepherd
21st	1945–1949	Alexander Campbell Hope	Coalition (PC)
22nd	1949–1952		Coalition (PC)
22nd	1952		PC
23rd	1952–1953	Thomas Irwin	Social Credit
24th	1953–1956	Thomas Irwin	Social Credit
Became a dual-member district between 1956–1966
28th	1966–1969	Robert Wenman	Social Credit
29th	1969–1972	Robert Wenman	Social Credit
30th	1972–1975	Carl Liden	NDP
31st	1975–1979	Kenneth Walter Davidson	Social Credit
32nd	1979–1983
33rd	1983–1986

Dual-member district

Assembly	Years	Seat 1			Seat 2
Assembly	Years	Member	Party		Member	Party
25th	1956–1957	Thomas Irwin		Social Credit	Nehemiah George Massey		Social Credit
25th	1957–1960	Gordon Lionel Gibson		Social Credit	Nehemiah George Massey		Social Credit
26th	1960–1961	Camille Mather		CCF	James Henry Rhodes		CCF
26th	1961–1963	Camille Mather		NDP	James Henry Rhodes		NDP
27th	1963–1966	Hunter Vogel		Social Credit	Ernest LeCours		Social Credit
Became a single-member district again between 1966–1986
34th	1986–1991	John Savage		Social Credit	Walter Davidson		Social Credit
Riding dissolved into Delta North* and Delta South.*

Electoral history

1903 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	John Oliver	447	59.13%
	Conservative	William Henry Ladner	309	40.87%
Total valid votes			756	100.00%

1907 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	John Oliver	430	62.23%
	Conservative	Francis James Anderson MacKenzie	261	37.77%
Total valid votes			691	100.00%

1909 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Francis James Anderson MacKenzie	765	58.13%
	Liberal	John Oliver	551	41.87%
Total valid votes			1,316	100.00%

1912 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Francis James Anderson MacKenzie	748	70.83%
	Liberal	John Oliver	308	29.17%
Total valid votes			1,056	100.00%

1916 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Francis James Anderson MacKenzie	964	51.55%
	Liberal	Alexander McDonald Paterson	906	48.45%
Total valid votes			1,870	100.00%

1920 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	John Oliver	1,334	37.50%
	Soldier–Farmer	Richmond Archie Payne	1,107	31.12%
	Conservative	Francis James Anderson MacKenzie	964	21.55%
Total valid votes			3,557	100.00%

1924 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	Alexander McDonald Paterson	1,677	46.13%
	Conservative	Archibald Woodbury McLelan	1,253	34.47%
	Provincial	Saul A. Bonnell	633	17.42%
	Independent Liberal	Hugh Williams	72	1.98%
Total valid votes			3,635	100.00%

1928 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	John Walter Berry	2,562	55.73%
	Liberal	Alexander McDonald Paterson	2,035	44.27%
Total valid votes			4,597	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			51

1933 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Robert Swailes	2,631	36.95%
	Liberal	Alexander McDonald Paterson	2,093	29.40%
	Independent	Rudolph Martin Grauer	1,735	24.37%
	Independent Conservative	John Walter Berry	447	6.28%
	Independent Conservative	Christopher Thomas Lawrence	165	2.32%
	United Front (Workers and Farmers)	Robert Kitchener Almas	49	0.69%
Total valid votes			7,120	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			64

1937 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Leonard Alec Shepherd	3,192	32.93%
	Liberal	Arthur Laing	3,102	32.01%
	Conservative	Rudolph Martin Grauer	2,815	29.04%
	Social Constructive	Robert Swailes	583	6.02%
Total valid votes			9,692	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			150

1941 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Leonard Alec Shepherd	5,153	42.29%
	Liberal	Arthur Laing	3,554	29.17%
	Conservative	Alexander Campbell Hope	3,478	28.54%
Total valid votes			12,185	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			225

1945 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Coalition	Alexander Campbell Hope	5,859	53.64%
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Leonard Alec Shepherd	5,063	46.36%
Total valid votes			10,922	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			138

1949 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Coalition	Alexander Campbell Hope	12,203	49.59%
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Leonard Alec Shepherd	11,110	45.15%
	Social Credit	Lyle Wicks	1,293	5.25%
Total valid votes			24,606	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			903

1952 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes 1st count	%	Votes final count	%
	Social Credit League	Thomas Irwin	11,759	37.22	14,805	52.69
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Leonard Alec Shepherd	10,853	34.35	13,295	47.31
	Progressive Conservative	Alexander Campbell Hope	4,688	18.84
	Liberal	Donald Alexander Sutherland Lanskail	4,293	13.59
Total valid votes			31,593	100.00	28,100	100.00
Total rejected ballots			2,172
Note: Preferential ballot; first and final of three (3) counts only shown.

1953 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes 1st count	%	Votes final count	%
	Social Credit	Thomas Irwin	15,417	54.05	15,417	54.05
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Leonard Alec Shepherd	11,095	35.80	13,108	45.95
	Liberal	Leslie Gilmore	5,500	17.75
	Progressive Conservative	Robert William Pybus	591	1.91
	Labor–Progressive	David Arnold Danielson	390	1.26
	Christian Democratic	Cyril Anthony Brocking	315	1.02
	People's	Edward Charles Mills	20	0.06
Total valid votes			30,990	100.00	28,525	100.00
Total rejected ballots			1,786
Note: Preferential ballot; first and final of three (3) counts only shown.

1956 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	Elected
	Social Credit	Thomas Irwin	18,848	52.98	Y
	Social Credit	Nehemiah George Massey	17,762	49.92	Y
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Walter H. Johnson	11,202	31.49
	Co-operative Commonwealth	James Henry Rhodes	10,798	30.35
	Liberal	Victor A. McPherson	5,149	14.47
	Liberal	William Pearce Wilson	4,680	13.15
	Labor–Progressive	Myrtle Evelyn Burnell	355	1.00
	Labor–Progressive	Frank Gaspar	272	0.76
Total valid votes			35,578	100.00
Total rejected ballots			352

British Columbia provincial by-election, 1957
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Social Credit	Gordon Lionel Gibson	9,989	39.41%
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Leonard Alec Shepherd	8,379	33.06%
	Progressive Conservative	Craig Frazer	5,388	21.26%
	Liberal	William Wilson	1,266	4.99%
	Labor–Progressive	Peter Gidora	217	0.86
	Independent	Peter Wolanski	109	0.43
Total valid votes			25,348	100.00%

1960 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	Elected
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Camille Mather	21,839	39.65	Y
	Co-operative Commonwealth	James Henry Rhodes	21,559	39.14	Y
	Social Credit	Nehemiah George Massey	21,011	38.15
	Social Credit	Donald H. Riggan	17,291	31.40
	Liberal	Arthur R. Helps	8,529	15.49
	Liberal	C. Douglas Morris	8,517	15.46
	Progressive Conservative	George Francis Crowe	2,280	4.14
	Progressive Conservative	Dalton O. Jones	2,159	3.92
	Independent	Gordon Lionel Gibson	2,010	3.65
	Communist	Homer Stevens	505	0.92
	Communist	George Lakusta	408	0.74
	Independent	Norman Baker	220	0.40
Total valid votes			55,073	100.00
Total rejected ballots			834

1963 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	Elected
	Social Credit	Hunter Bertram Vogel	22,504	41.78	Y
	Social Credit	Ernest LeCours	22,067	40.97	Y
	New Democratic	Camille Mather	18,690	34.70
	New Democratic	James Henry Rhodes	17,661	32.79
	Liberal	J.T. "Jock" Smith	5,553	10.31
	Liberal	Harry Lewis Huff	5,342	9.92
	Progressive Conservative	Theodore Kuhn	4,461	8.28
	Progressive Conservative	Thomas Horan	4,049	7.52
	Communist	Homer Stevens	505	0.94
Total valid votes			53,860	100.00
Total rejected ballots			473

1966 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Social Credit	Robert Wenman	7,768	46.46%
	New Democratic	Thomas Jack Howard	6,078	36.35%
	Liberal	Rudolph Martin Grauer	1,954	11.69%
	Progressive Conservative	Philip Govan	921	5.51%
Total valid votes			16,721	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			153

1969 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Social Credit	Robert Wenman	14,145	51.35%
	New Democratic	Carl Liden	9,855	35.78%
	Liberal	Doral Hemm	3,545	12.87%
Total valid votes			27,545	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			295

1972 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	New Democratic	Carl Liden	15,040	39.90%
	Social Credit	Robert Wenman	12,260	32.53%
	Progressive Conservative	Marcia Ann Boyd	6,660	17.67%
	Liberal	Lorne L. Donnelly	3,730	9.90%
Total valid votes			37,690	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			378

1975 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Social Credit	Kenneth Walter Davidson	25,892	53.32%
	New Democratic	Carl Liden	17,469	35.98%
	Progressive Conservative	John O'Brien Bell	2,857	5.88%
	Liberal	Arthur Edward Bates	2,236	4.60%
	Communist	Michael Anthony Darnell	105	0.22%
Total valid votes			48,559	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			592

1979 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Social Credit	Kenneth Walter Davidson	16,421	55.10%
	New Democratic	Carl Liden	11,429	38.35%
	Progressive Conservative	Elsie Gwendolyn Burnett	1,877	6.30%
	Communist	John Michael Stevens	73	0.25%
Total valid votes			29,800	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			228

1983 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Social Credit	Kenneth Walter Davidson	21,496	58.37%
	New Democratic	Karl H. Moser	13,300	36.12%
	Progressive Conservative	David Peter Hoyt	1,117	3.03%
	Liberal	Ken Buhay	464	1.26%
	WCC	Michael Terence Coggan	450	1.22%
Total valid votes			36,827	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			247

1986 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	Elected
	Social Credit	John Lawrence Savage	20,950	57.38	Y
	Social Credit	Kenneth Walter Davidson	20,523	56.21	Y
	New Democratic	Karl H. Moser	13,581	37.20
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Sylvia K. Bishop	11,984	32.82
	Liberal	Samuel D. Stevens	2,855	7.82
	Progressive Conservative	Kenneth Douglas Smith	1,804	4.94
Total valid votes			36,510	100.00
Total rejected ballots			722

The Delta riding was partitioned after the 1986 election into Delta North and Delta South.

Sources

Elections BC Historical Returns

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