Fighting back; falling short

by | Apr 19, 1979 | Timeline:1970s

1979 election results, where the NDP finished five seats back
The message in 1979 was “Compare the records. You’re better off with the NDP”. Once again, the party fought on its 1972-75 successful reforms and this time the vote was the highest ever: 46%, a major breakthrough in levels of support. But it wasn’t quite enough to win. Bill Bennett and the Socreds ran on the usual anti-socialist rhetoric and a new gimmick. They combined provincial crown assets amassed by the NDP into the BC Resources Investment Corporation – BCRIC – and then gave every BC adult five free shares. Today those assets are no longer in public hands and the free shares are worthless. But the scheme was a dominant feature of the 1979 campaign: peoples’ capitalism vs socialism. And Social Credit just managed to pull it off with 48% of the vote, winning five more seats than the NDP.