The Islands

The Islands was a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It first appeared on the hustings in the 1890 provincial election and lasted until it was integrated into the new riding Nanaimo and The Islands at the 1941 election.

Notable MLAs

This Nanaimo-Gulf Islands area riding's first appearance was in 1903. It was originally created for the 1890 election, but was redistributed and done away with for the 1894 election, but it was brought back again in the large redistribution that set the stage for the watershed 1903 election, which ended the no-party era in the BC House. The Islands then lasted until the 1937 election, and subsequently parts of it became Nanaimo and the Islands, which was a riding in elections from 1941 to 1963, or in other Nanaimo-area electoral districts.

Parts of the area covered by The Islands are currently represented by various newer ridings:

Electoral history

Note: Winners of each election are in bold.

10th British Columbia election, 1890
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
	Government	John Paton Booth	57	49.57%	–	unknown
	Government	Frederick Foord	28	24.35%	–	unknown
	Opposition	Horatio John Robertson	30	26.09%	–	unknown
Total valid votes			115	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%

For the 1890 election The Islands was redistributed between North Nanaimo, South Nanaimo and Cowichan-Alberni. It did not appear again until 1903:

10th British Columbia election, 1903
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
	Conservative	Henry Wright Bullock	154	41.07%	unknown
	Liberal	Thomas Wilson Paterson	221	58.93%	unknown
Total valid votes			375	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%

11th British Columbia election, 1907
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
	Socialist	William John Ledingham	11	3.03%	–	unknown
	Conservative	Albert Edward McPhillips	179	49.31%		unknown
	Liberal	Thomas Wilson Paterson	173	47.66%		unknown
Total valid votes			363	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%

12th British Columbia election, 1909
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
	Conservative	Albert Edward McPhillips	270	56.60%	unknown
	Liberal	Percy Purvis	207	43.40%	unknown
Total valid votes			477	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%

13th British Columbia election, 1912
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Albert Edward McPhillips	345	75.66%
	Independent Conservative	Percy Kent Winch	111	24.34%
Total valid votes			456	100.00%

14th British Columbia election, 1916
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
	Conservative	William Wasbrough Foster	354	49.72%	unknown
	Liberal	Malcolm Bruce Jackson	358	50.28%	unknown
Total valid votes			712	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%

v t e 1920 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	Malcolm Bruce Jackson	581	40.86
	Conservative	George Clark	481	33.83
	Soldier–Farmer	Lewis Adolphus de Vic Carey	360	25.32
Total valid votes			1,422	100.00

16th British Columbia election, 1924
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Malcolm Bruce Jackson	463	38.71%	unknown
	Provincial	John William McIntosh	581	34.06%	unknown
	Conservative	Cyrus Wesley Peck	583	34.17%	unknown
Total valid votes			1,706	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%

17th British Columbia election, 1928
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Malcolm Bruce Jackson	683	37.30%	unknown
	Conservative	Cyrus Wesley Peck	1,148	62.70%	unknown
Total valid votes			1,831	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			44
Turnout			%

18th British Columbia election, 1933
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
	Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	William Ellis	400	19.47%
	Independent Conservative	William Wasbrough Foster	669	32.57%
	Non-Partisan Independent Group	John Bayley Hardinge	233	11.34%
	Independent	William Henry Russell Humber	26	1.27%	unknown
	Liberal	Alexander McDonald	726	35.35%	unknown
Total valid votes			1,284	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			34
Turnout			%

19th British Columbia election, 1937
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
	Social Credit League	Gordon Hay Brown	51	2.41%	unknown
	Conservative	Macgregor Fullarton MacIntosh	953	45.12%	unknown
	Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Grace E. Burtt Martin	414	19.60%	unknown
	Liberal	Alexander McDonald	694	32.86%	unknown
Total valid votes			2,112	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			21
Turnout			%

In 1941, the area was redistributed into the new Nanaimo and the Islands riding. Parts of it are now in Saanich North and the Islands.

References

Elections BC Historical Returns