Yale (provincial electoral district)

Yale was a provincial electoral district in British Columbia, Canada from the province's joining Confederation in 1871. It was a 3-member constituency and retained the name Yale until the 1894 election, at which time it was split into three ridings, Yale-East, Yale-North and Yale-West; other ridings in the southeast of the province had previously been split off, e.g., Fernie, Ymir, Grand Forks, which later emerged or were rearranged into the various Kootenay and Okanagan ridings. In 1903 the name Yale (by itself) was revived, this time as a one-member riding only, the new riding largely based upon Yale-West. Its last appearance on the hustings was 1963. In 1966, it was amalgamated into the new riding of Yale-Lillooet, which was extant until 2009, when most of its core area was made part of the new Fraser-Nicola riding.

Geography

The original Yale riding encompassed the whole of today's Kootenay, Okanagan, Similkameen, Thompson and Nicola regions, plus its original core in the Fraser Canyon, south from and including Lytton. The riding's name is from the town of Yale, British Columbia, then still an important centre in the new province and in fact one of the very few actual towns in the riding at the time.

Notable MLAs

Charles Augustus Semlin (12th Premier 1915-1928, first elected 1871)
John Andrew Mara
Forbes George Vernon (namesake of the city of Vernon)
Richard McBride (1909, incumbent/16th Premier 1903-1915)
John Duncan MacLean (20th Premier, 1920–1921)
William Leonard Hartley

Notable candidates

Gilbert Malcolm Sproat, native claims commissioner

Election results

Note: Winners of each election are in bold.

1st 1871 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
	Independent	George Coxon ¹	29	16.96%	unknown
	Independent	William H. Kay	8	4.68%	unknown
	Independent	Moses Lumby	17	9.94%	unknown
	Independent	James Robinson	35	20.47%	unknown
	Independent	Charles Augustus Semlin	29	16.96%	unknown
	Independent	Robert Smith	53	30.99%	unknown
Total valid votes			171	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%
¹ The Returning Officer cast the deciding vote for Semlin, who had the same number of votes.

v t e 1875 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	Elected
	Reform caucus	John Andrew Mara	130	20.57	Y
	Reform caucus	Forbes George Vernon	125	19.78	Y
	Independent Government	Robert Smith	117	18.57	Y
	Reform	John F. Allison	100	15.82
	Independent Government	Charles Augustus Semlin	94	14.87
	Independent Government	James Robinson	59	9.34
	Independent	James Ross	7	1.1
Total valid votes			632	100.00

3rd 1878 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
	Government	Preston Bennett	158	20.05%	–	unknown
	Opposition	Dixon Joseph Lauder	87	11.04%	–	unknown
	Opposition	William McCormack	93	11.80%	–	unknown
	Government	John Andrew Mara	172	21.83%	–	unknown
	Opposition	Charles Augustus Semlin	120	15.23%	–	unknown
	Government	Forbes George Vernon	158	20.05%	–	unknown
Total valid votes			788	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%

4th 1882 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
	Government	Preston Bennett	194	19.56%	–	unknown
	Independent	Henry Dodson Green-Armytage	98	9.88%
	Government	William McGirr	60	6.05%	–	unknown
	Government	John Andrew Mara	240	24.19%	–	unknown
	Government	Edward Peason	78	7.86%	–	unknown
	Independent	Charles Augustus Semlin	254	25.60%		unknown
	Independent	Gilbert Malcolm Sproat	68	6.86%		unknown
Total valid votes			992	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%

British Columbia By-election: Yale November 15, 1882 ²
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
	Government	Thomas Basil Humphreys	157	39.15%	–	unknown
	Opposition	George Bohun Martin	244	60.05%	–	unknown
Total valid votes			401	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%
² Death of Preston Bennett August 9, 1882.

5th 1886 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
	Government	Archibald Irwin	196	14.91%	–	unknown
	Government	George Bohun Martin	283	21.54%	–	unknown
	Opposition	Henry Nicholson	93	7.08%	–	unknown
	Opposition	Thomas Roadley	88	6.77%	–	unknown
	Opposition	Charles Augustus Semlin	364	27.70%	–	unknown
	Government	Forbes George Vernon	290	22.07%	–	unknown
Total valid votes			1,314	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%

6th 1890 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
	Opposition	Irwin Archibald	256	13.17%	–	unknown
	Government	George Bohun Martin	445	22.89%	–	unknown
	Opposition	Charles Augustus Semlin	396	20.37%	–	unknown
	Government	Forbes George Vernon	496	25.51%	–	unknown
	Government	James Wardle	351	18.06%	–	unknown
Total valid votes			1,944	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%

7th 1894 British Columbia general election

split to three ridings:

8th 1898 British Columbia general election

9th 1900 British Columbia general election

10th 1903 British Columbia general election ⁴
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Stuart Alexander Henderson	309	60.59%	unknown
	Conservative	Thomas Gray McManamon	201	39.41%	unknown
Total valid votes			510	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%
⁴Restored seat reduced to one member only; successor to Yale-West

11th 1907 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Stuart Alexander Henderson	289	58.27%	unknown
	Conservative	Charles Augustus Semlin	207	41.73%	unknown
Total valid votes			496	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%

12th 1909 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Stuart Alexander Henderson	265	36.81%	unknown
	Conservative	Richard McBride	455	63.19%	unknown
Total valid votes			720	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%

13th 1912 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
	Conservative	Alexander Lucas	524	65.26%	unknown
	Liberal	John P. McConnell	279	34.74%	unknown
Total valid votes			281	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			71.98%

14th 1916 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
	Conservative	Alexander Lucas	609	42.95%	unknown
	Liberal	Joseph Walters	809	57.05%	unknown
Total valid votes			1,418	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			%

15th 1920 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
	Liberal	James Robert Cameron	737	31.95%	unknown
	Conservative	John McRae	913	39.58%	unknown
	Independent Liberal	Joseph Walters	657	28.48%
Total valid votes			2,307	100.00%

v t e 1924 British Columbia general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	John Duncan MacLean	1,148	46.09
	Conservative	John McRae	765	30.71
	Provincial	James Sugrue Fagan	578	23.20
Total valid votes			2,491	100.00

17th 1928 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
	Liberal	John Joseph Alban Gillis	1,514	57.22%	unknown
	Conservative	Romald Helmerow Helmer	1,132	42.78%	unknown
Total valid votes			2,646	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			27
Turnout			%

18th 1933 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
	Liberal	John Joseph Alban Gillis	1,193	68.64%		unknown
	Non-Partisan Independent Group	Romald Helmerow Helmer	312	17.95%	–	unknown
	Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	John Wise Langley	233	13.41%		unknown
Total valid votes			1,738	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			23
Turnout			%

19th 1937 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
	Liberal	John Joseph Alban Gillis	968	59.94%	unknown
	Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	John Wise Langley	422	26.13%	unknown
	Conservative	John Wilson North	225	13.93%	unknown
Total valid votes			1,615	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			40
Turnout			%

20th 1941 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
	Conservative	Alexander Rennie Ross Craig	616	34.92%	unknown
	Liberal	John Joseph Alban Gillis	1,148	65.08%	unknown
Total valid votes			1,764	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			55
Turnout			%

21st 1945 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
	Liberal	John Joseph Alban Gillis	1077	34.92%	unknown
	Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Angus Hugh MacIsaac	536	33.23%	unknown
Total valid votes			1,613	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			63
Turnout			%

22nd 1949 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
	Coalition	John Joseph Alban Gillis	1,407	46.90%	–	unknown
	Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Angus Hugh MacIsaac	865	28.83%		unknown
	Independent	William John Trout	728	24.27%		unknown
Total valid votes			3,000	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			42
Turnout			%

23rd British Columbia election, 1952²
Party		Candidate	Votes 1st count	%	Votes final count	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Bernard (Ben) Cherry	338	10.74%	-	-%		unknown
	Social Credit League	Irvine Finlay Corbett	1,024	32.53%	1,390	51.46%
	Liberal	John Joseph Allan Gillis	1,067	33.89%	1,311	48.54%		unknown
	Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Angus Hugh MacIsaac	659	20.93%	-	-%		unknown
	Independent	George Murray	60	1.91%	-	-%		unknown
Total valid votes			3,148	%	2,701	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			98
Turnout			%
² Preferential ballot - final count is between top two candidates from earlier counts; intermediary counts (of 4) not shown.

24th British Columbia election, 1953 ³
Party		Candidate	Votes 1st count	%	Votes final count	%	±%
	Social Credit	Irvine Finlay Corbett	1,177	39.86%	1,354	54.36%
	Co-operative Commonwealth Federation	Evan Donald MacDougall	835	28.28%	-	- %		unknown
Total valid votes			2,953	100.00%	2,491	%
Total rejected ballots			278
Total Registered Voters			5,933 (1952 list)
Turnout			70.15%
³ Preferential ballot; final count is between top two candidates from first count; intermediary counts (of 3) not shown

25th 1956 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
	Social Credit	Irvine Finlay Corbett	1,315	47.34	–	unknown
	Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Joe Madden	599	21.56%		unknown
	Liberal	Olga McLean	703	25.31%		unknown
	Conservative	Kenneth Moyes	161	5.80%		unknown
Total valid votes			2,778	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			61
Turnout			%

26th 1960 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
	Liberal	John Allan Collett	964	27.30%		unknown
	Social Credit	Irvine Finlay Corbett	1,103	31.24%	–	unknown
	Conservative	William Joseph Lauder	390	11.05%		unknown
	Co-operative Commonwealth Fed.	Evan Donald MacDougall	1,074	30.42%		unknown
Total valid votes			3,531	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			107
Turnout			%

27th 1963 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
	Liberal	John Allan Collett	599	13.10%		unknown
	Social Credit	Irvine Finlay Corbett	1,691	36.99%	–	unknown
	Conservative	John Willison Green	584	12.78%		unknown
	New Democrat	William Leonard Hartley	1,697	37.43%		unknown
Total valid votes			4,571	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			58
Turnout			%

Before the 28th general election in 1966, parts of the former riding of Yale became incorporated into the new riding of Yale-Lillooet, which survives to the present.