The British Columbia general election of 1979 was the 32nd general 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 3, 1979. The election was held on May 10, 1979, and the new legislature met for the first time on June 6, 1979.

The governing Social Credit Party of British Columbia of Bill Bennett was re-elected with a majority government, and won almost half of the popular vote. The electorate was polarized between the conservative Socreds and the social democratic New Democratic Party of former premier David Barrett, which won just under 46% of the popular vote and all of the remaining seats in the legislature.

Of the other parties only the Progressive Conservatives won over 1% of the popular vote, but their 5% of the vote did not enable them to hold on to their single seat in the legislature. Party leader Victor Stephens complained during the campaign that the federal PC Party was providing no assistance to the provincial party, favouring Social Credit instead. The caused embarrassment for federal party leader Joe Clark, who was leading his own election campaign for the May 22, 1979 federal election.

Also in this election, Robert Douglas Cook, the Gay Alliance Toward Equality candidate in West Vancouver-Howe Sound, became the first openly gay candidate ever to run for political office in Canada.

Results

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
				1975	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change	Social Credit	Bill Bennett	57	35	31	-11.4%	677,607	48.23%	-1.02%	New Democrats	Dave Barrett	57	18	26	44.4%	646,188	45.99%	+6.83%	Progressive Conservative	Victor Stephens	37	1	-	-100%	71,078	5.06%	+1.20%	Liberal	Jev Tothill	5	1	-	-100%	6,662	0.47%	-6.77%	Communist		7	-	-	-	1,159	0.08%	-0.03%	Independent		5	-	-	-	1,098	0.08%	-0.28%	Western Independence		2	*	-	*	555	0.04%	*	North American Labour		4	-	-	-	297	0.02%	+0.01%	Marxist-Leninist		2	*	-	*	235	0.02%	*	Gay Alliance Toward Equality		1	*	-	*	126	0.01%	*	Independent New Hope		1	*	-	*	72	0.01%	*
Total			178	55	57	+3.6%	1,405,077	100%
Source: Elections BC

Note:

* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

See also

• List of British Columbia political parties