British Columbia general election, 1996

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.

Reform BC won two seats.

Although the Liberals won a larger share of the popular vote, most of their votes were wasted in the outer regions of the province; they only won eight seats in the Vancouver area. This allowed the NDP to win 6 more seats than the opposition Liberals, eking out a three -seat majority government.